Is Research in Motion getting rid of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)? How will BlackBerry 10 device be managed? Can iOS and Android devices be managed with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion? Will management be secure?
These and other questions about future plan of the troubled BlackBerry maker were tackled by the company’s vice president for enterprise product management, Alan Panezic.
In the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog yesterday Panezic said BES has long been a “pillar of secure enterprise device management” and with its latest version 5.0.3 has grown in functionality. However time for change has come, he said in his blog. “In the meantime, things in the market have gotten a bit messy and more than a bit challenging for IT administrators, IT specialists, and CIOs.”
Organizations, he said, are under pressure to support a wide variety of multiple devices and RIM’s answer to this is BlackBerry Mobile Fusion.
“The evolution of BlackBerry Enterprise Server is BlackBerry Mobile Fusion,” Panezic wrote.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion (BMF) is designed to establish and maintain a BlackBerry Secure Connection from the business network to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, leveraging the RIM infrastructure that IT departments around the world know and trust. BlackBerry Balance technology on BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 and enabled BlackBerry smartphones is designed to create a secure corporate perimeter so that all corporate applications and data remain secure on a device and separate from personal data.
BMF supports the latest mobile device management (MDM) capabilities available in iOS and Android, and is designed to enable administrators to apply corporate policies and configurations to manage and secure these devices. BMF will also provide security BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and future BlackBerry 10 smartphones and tablets, according to Panezic.
BMF also uses Microsoft ActiveSync as an email and PIM sync protocol while providing enterprises with many of the same advantages that BES does for a BlackBerry smartphone.
“BMF will provide one place to manage BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and future BlackBerry 10 devices (as well as iOS and Android smartphones and tablets,” said Panezic
