Own control platform for smartphones
The Open Mobile Platform (OMP) team showcases Aurora Center, a robust management system demonstrated on a Nokia smartphone running Android. Beside it sits Mikhail Zubov, head of sales support, with the latest Aurora Center interface visible on his laptop.
Aurora Center is positioned as a Russian equivalent to enterprise mobility management solutions such as Citrix Endpoint Management and VMware Workspace ONE. The core concept behind these platforms is consistent: an administrator sits at the center, able to supervise and secure a fleet of mobile devices from a single workstation. This central manager can enroll new smartphones and tablets, set policy restrictions, deploy apps, and enforce permissions across an organization’s devices. For many enterprises and government bodies, such centers are essential to enhancing data protection and operational control.
Initially, Aurora Center supported only devices powered by Aurora OS. With the release of version 3.1, however, it expanded to include enterprise Android devices. This move marks a strategic shift toward import substitution of enterprise mobility management solutions and reduces reliance on external global vendors.
During the demonstration, Mikhail Zubov noted that the platform underwent rigorous testing, with 360,000 devices running Aurora OS connected to the management system during the first national census in 2021. He also highlighted a potential scale of up to 500,000 devices. These include smartphones and tablets across both Aurora and Android ecosystems.
The effectiveness of Aurora Center is boosted by an in-house push notification system developed by OMP experts. This mechanism sends commands to devices, prompting on-screen alerts that resemble familiar notifications. Such messages can be used to take action, for instance to wipe data if a device is stolen or compromised.
Opportunity to opt out of Google services
Supporting Android devices in Aurora Center does not require restarting devices or reinstalling software. A single APK-based application is sufficient to enable full enterprise control.
The Aurora Center app is delivered as a standard APK file. Once installed, it grants the system owner extended device permissions, enabling management actions within the Android environment. The platform is designed to function independently of Google Play and Google Mobile Services, ensuring continued control even if Google services were interrupted.
According to Zubov, the system’s architecture is resilient to disruptions from external services. The installation is local and fully controlled by the corporate administrator.
Device enrollment is streamlined by importing a CSV file and grouping devices to accelerate policy application. After grouping, administrators can assign rules that govern device behavior, such as mandatory app installations or prohibitions on video recording.
When a group policy is issued, push notifications reach all affected devices and the rules take effect immediately. In a live demo, a Nokia Android phone added to a group refused to record video due to a policy restriction, which also impacted related apps like QR code scanners.
Another feature shown by Filippov is support for offline scenarios. If a device remains offline for several days, tailored rules can specify actions like locking the device or erasing data from memory. The script can be applied to an entire device group, ensuring the rule affects each device, even if some do not connect at the same moment.
Already using Aurora Center
OMP reports that Aurora Center is in use with Aurora OS devices in several sectors, including operational control centers, government logistics, and major utilities. Russian Post employs the platform to manage thousands of mobile terminals and payment apps, enabling new services for customers through native software on Aurora devices.
At Rostelecom, the local center oversees more than a thousand corporate devices used by staff for order taking, photo documentation, and workload tracking. Russian Railways runs a mobile app for Aurora that supports repair and field teams, with thousands of active devices and plans to expand further. Inter RAO has rolled out Mobile Lineman, a joint project with Sigma, across power plants to monitor turbine and generator sensors from mobile devices, reducing equipment fault rates. The initiative is expanding to additional facilities.
Despite these successes, the same companies manage a mixed fleet of devices, both Aurora and Android, under Aurora Center. The aim is to demonstrate that Aurora can match Android functionality in real-world scenarios and provide centralized fleet management for diverse devices, as noted by Zubov.
Advantages and disadvantages
A key question concerns which Android devices Aurora Center supports. Filippov notes testing across Android versions 9, 10, and 11. While the demonstration used a Nokia 5.1, the platform has also been tested on popular Samsung and Huawei devices, which are widely used in Russia.
At present, the Android variant offers fewer features than the Aurora OS version, but the first release lays a foundation for ongoing integration. Plans are in place to merge Android management capabilities with other control functions in upcoming updates. The ability to govern Android devices through Aurora Center opens a path for organizations to centralize management of existing Android fleets, as described by Filippov. The business model remains focused on B2B and B2G deployments rather than consumer markets.