Research In Motion entered the multi-platform Mobile Device Management (MDM) market this week with the introduction of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, the company’s next-generation enterprise mobility solution.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion aims to simplify the management of smartphones and tablets in the enterprise, not just for its own BlackBerry devices, but also for competing devices running Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems.
Despite RIM’s recent troubles and lost market share, primarily to Android devices and Apple’s iPhone, the company still has a massive footprint in enterprise environments. According to RIM, 90 percent of the Fortune 500 are still provisioning BlackBerry devices.
As use of smartphones and tablets in the enterprise continues to grow, the trend of employee-owned devices (Bring Your Own Device or BYOD) is bringing an increase in the diversity of mobile devices accessing enterprise networks.
Related: It Will Take More Than a Few BlackBerry Outages to Kill RIM
“BlackBerry Mobile Fusion brings together our industry-leading BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology for BlackBerry devices with mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices, all managed from one web-based console,” said Alan Panezic, Vice President, Enterprise Product Management and Marketing at Research In Motion. “It provides the necessary management capabilities to allow IT departments to confidently oversee the use of both company-owned and employee-owned mobile devices within their organizations.”
RIM says BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will provide the following mobile device management capabilities for supported mobile devices:
• Asset management
• Configuration management
• Security and policy definition and management
• Secure and protect lost or stolen devices (remote lock, wipe)
• User- and group-based administration
• Multiple device per user capable
• Application and software management
• Connectivity management (Wi-Fi, VPN, certificate)
• Centralized console
Mobile Fusion will also bring self-service functionality for employees to secure lost or stolen BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablets.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is currently in early beta testing, with general availability is expected in late March 2012.
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