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I recently met up with a startup startup called MobileIron that is ramping up in the mobile device management space. It’s quickly gaining customers, capital, and customers, a good formula on the road to success.

Here’s the problem: The number of smartphones is exploding – consumers bought nearly 200 million of these devices worldwide in 2009, according to Gartner Group – and if the consumers are using the phones for business, the companies need management tools to monitor and maintain this expanding fleet of smartphones.

MobileIron makes a Virtual Smartphone Platform that allows IT managers to monitor, secure, and manage data and network usage on enterprise smartphones. It works across the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Symbian, and Palm’s Web OS smartphone operating systems. The company says that Android support is coming soon. Among the features included in the product are the ability to watch for data and usage spikes, monitoring International roaming to cut down on excessive bills, service-quality monitoring, and device security management.

The company has an interesting edge in that it provides a management application for iPhones, which are obviously surging on corporate networks. iPhones, in the past, have not been thought of as an “enterprise” phone, but more of a consumer device. MobileIron provides an iPhone management application for companies that want to deploy them to the workforce.

I spoke to Chris Field, who is an IT manager at NetGear that uses the MobileIron product to manage employee smartphones. He says that product has helped the company manage the mobile workforce, including cutting down on phone bills by using the features such as the International roaming monitor.

“It saves us a couple of thousands of dollars a month on International calling plans,” said Field. “It can check for International calling patterns and tell us when somebody is getting excessive charges and should be switched to an unlimited plan.”

MobileIron last August raised $11 million in Series B funding from top investors including Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Storm Ventures. The company is led by CEO Bob Tinker, who was a former business development manager for Cisco’s wireless business units. He was also formerly vice president of business development at Airespace, which was acquired by Cisco in 2005.

Other companies focused on the enterprise device management space include Sparus Software, Sybase, Trust Digital, and Zenprise.