A stealthy startup called Armor5 wants to alleviate fears about employees and remote workers bringing their own devices to work.

The Santa Clara, Calif., based Armor5 has a new way for mobile workers to access their company’s applications without sensitive data hitting their handset. The beta version is available for free as of today with a self-service sign up.

Chief executive Suresh Balasubramanian, a former general manager of antipiracy at Adobe, believes that BYOD (employees bringing their own devices to work) is a big problem for IT departments; they have “no choice but to deal with the issue,” he said. But it also raises “significant security, compliance and cost problems.”

You’ve been living under a rock if you’re not concerned about the security risks of BYOD. The topic was the center of discussions at the RSA Security conference, particularly given that the sophistication of attacks on corporate firewalls are increasing.

Balasubramanian told VentureBeat that competitors — including mobile device management and desktop virtualization (VDI) vendors — don’t address IT’s growing needs. MDM software used by an IT department to manage employee’s mobile devices is hard to administer, he explained, and VDI can’t deliver on all app functions.

A lot of companies have attempted to solve this problem by locking down certain apps or enabling IT to access specific parts of a personal device.

But Amor5′s approach is a bit different: The technology connects to a company network via an existing VPN, virtualizes Intranet data and cloud apps, and generates a URL for mobile workers to access content safely from a personal or company-issued device. The entire process takes just a few minutes.

Balasubramanian was brought on as CEO after the company incorporated in 2011. Its founders are former engineers from Microsoft, Adobe, and Motorola.

“CIOs are understandably concerned with data security given the rise of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices inside their organizations,” said Fred Wang, the general partner at Trinity Ventures, the firm that led the seed round.  ”Its [Armor5's] singular focus on the intersection of data security and BYOD, and its unique approach to solving the problem, is the reason we are investing.”

The startup has emerged from stealth mode today with $2 million in funding from Trinity Ventures, Citrix, and Nexus Venture Partners. 

“More devices, more problems” seems to be general attitude of IT managers dealing with the rise of the “bring your own device” movement.

But for mobile device management companies like AirWatch, more devices means something else: More money. The company has raised $200 million in a series A round led by Insight Venture Partners.

With AirWatch’s software, IT managers are able to track and monitor all of companies’ devices at once, saving them time and energy while reducing the risk of security breaches from unsecured devices.

The funding round is a big one for AirWatch, which has operated for ten years without the help of outside capital.

Besides the funding, there are clear signs that AirWatch’s approach has become an attractive one for businesses: It currently counts over 6,000 clients, including big energy companies, pharmaceutical giants, and most of the global airlines. AirWatch says it adds roughly 5oo new clients a month.

With the funding AirWatch says it plans to make some big-ticket acquisitions and continue pushing its existing products to new companies.

Your company’s IT department has the power to wipe personal data from your smartphone  – a responsibility it doesn’t want, and certainly never asked for.

Today, a San Francisco-based startup, MobileSpaces, has pulled in $3 million in first-round funding from Accel Partners to scale its technology that can keep employee’s personal data off-limits.

David Goldschlag, founder and CEO of MobileSpaces

“If you ever leave the enterprise, they reserve the right to your data,” said David Goldschlag (pictured, left), the company’s founder and chief executive, and the former vice president of mobile at McAfee. To prevent data disasters, it has developed a mobile workspace, which segments professional apps from personal ones.

This project has been brewing for several years. During his time at McAfee, the Internet security and virus protection provider, Goldschlag noticed that corporate IT teams were often given “too much visibility into their employees personal data.” There is a growing trend that has contributed to this problem: bring your own device (“BYOD”).

When we use devices like tablets and smartphones interchangeably in our professional and personal lives, it’s a huge headache for IT. They are under pressure to maintain centralized control over corporate data, including mobile apps and email, and to manage network security.

MobileSpace’s solution is simple. Using a UI marker (the tiny blue icon in the screenshot, left), employees can demarcate any of the applications used for work (company email, Salesforce, Yammer, and so on), thus enabling IT to safely gain access to that data.

“We are enabling the enterprise to comfortably let its apps run and coexist with personal apps,”  Goldschlag explained in an interview with VentureBeat.

To succeed, the company will need to overcome some stiff competition. Tech giant, VMware, has its own mobile virtualization offering, and there are a number of mobile device management (MDM) companies that are major players in the space. Goldschlag also counts Good Technology, a mobile security provider, as a key competitor.

As part of the financing, Richard Wong, an Accel partner, will join the company’s board.

Mobile security image via Shutterstock