Consumerisation of IT and the mobilisation of the workforce mean that companies need to invest in cross-platform mobile device management (MDM) solutions to ensure that their mobile employees can be productive without compromising enterprise governance and information security.
That’s according to Robyn Milham, Head of Sales for Southern Africa at Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry® solution. She says that most organisations are managing a chaotic mix of mobile devices as a result of an increasingly mobile workforce and consumerisation of IT in the form of Bring Your Own Device policies that allow employees to bring their own devices into the workplace.
Milham says that against this backdrop, companies need to invest in MDM solutions that offer centralised device management, remote device provisioning and end-to-end security and control to keep control over their data while giving end-users the flexibility they need to be productive and mobile.
Recognising the challenge consumerisation places for IT departments, RIM has created solutions such as BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion, a next-generation MDM solution for enterprise customers.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion consolidates the management of smartphones and tablets running BlackBerry® OS (including support for BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets and future BlackBerry® 10 smartphones) as well as Google Android™ and Apple iOS.
It provides a single, unified console for easily managing all devices. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion integrates the features and security architecture of BlackBerry® Enterprise Server. It provides advanced IT management and controls, a single outbound security connection, enforceable IT policies, and over-the-air app and software installation capabilities for BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
“It goes right to the heart of the biggest challenges CIOs face: securing and managing heterogeneous smartphones and tablets as a result users bringing their own devices to work,” says Milham. “With BlackBerry Mobile Fusion in place, CIOs can govern the mobile environment effectively without restricting user choice and flexibility.”
Because many users will use want to the same device for personal and work tasks, RIM has developed the BlackBerry® Balance™ technology to enable BlackBerry smartphones and tablets to be used for business and personal purposes without compromise. BlackBerry Balance technology provides secure access to corporate applications, while allowing users to enjoy personal apps on their smartphones.
Across all supported mobile devices, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion offers features such as asset management, configuration management, security and policy definition and management, remote wiping and locking of lost or stolen devices, and application and software management.
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