BlackBerry previews new cloud-based EMM

9 Oct 2013

BlackBerry has previewed a new multi-platform cloud-based enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2013, which will enable businesses to secure and manage corporate and personal devices easily.

The new cloud-based EMM solution will give business the ease, flexibility and cost controls to support BYOD, allowing employees to enjoy the content and apps they demand, while maintaining the security requirements and productivity gains of mobilising, for the organisation.

Gartner predicts that half of employers will require employees to supply their own device for work purposes by 2017. Gartner also predicts that through 2014, employee-owned devices will be compromised by malware at more than double the rate of corporate-owned devices, putting device and app management high on the priority list for business and IT leaders alike. With BYOD growing every day, businesses need an EMM solution that is easy to deploy and manage, requires no big upfront costs, and satisfies the needs of their employees without compromising the businesses' security requirements.

Offerings

BlackBerry's new multi-platform EMM cloud solution will offer businesses mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), security standards, and self-service capabilities for the end-user. The solution will be available as a service, satisfying end-users, and business leaders and IT departments' needs for an easy-to-deploy, easy-to-manage and highly cost-effective solution for smartphone and tablet management.

"BlackBerry is evolving. As the industry has adopted BYOD and mixed mobile environments, we've responded with our multi-platform EMM solution," said Stephen Bates, head of the enterprise business unit of BlackBerry. "The new cloud-based EMM solution will bring all the benefits of our on-premise offering to customers as a cloud service that lets them easily manage BlackBerry, iOS and Android devices more cost-efficiently than ever before."

The new cloud-based EMM solution will offer:

Simple and fast deployment. No server hardware or software to install, just register and go;
Administrators can easily manage and secure smartphones and tablets. The simple Web-based admin console will provide easy activation and deployment of BlackBerry, iOS and Android smartphones, app management, security policy configuration and compliance monitoring;
Administrators can secure, deploy and manage apps. Administrators will be able to build a catalogue of public apps from the App StoreSM, Google Play and the BlackBerry World storefront, and then view app distribution and usage for all users and devices.

End-users can manage their own devices through the self-service console. End-users will be able to perform common management tasks such as setting up or changing device passwords and remote wipe and lock easily, without relying on an administrator, giving them independence and saving on help desk calls.

As a service, the new cloud-based EMM solution will minimise the complexity of managing a fleet of disparate mobile devices, and will be beneficial for IT departments that are strained in today's business environment, and essential for teams or businesses without an IT department. It will also eliminate the need for organisations to purchase any servers or software - administrators will simply register online then log in to the web-based management console to define users, enrol devices, set security controls, and deploy apps.

Closed beta testing for the new cloud-based EMM solution is already underway. The service will be available as a single monthly subscription that covers both the licence and technical support, and is expected to be generally available by the end of November 2013.

For more, go to www.blackberry.com/cloud