Canada - RIM makes BYOD play with Mobile Fusion

Extends its BlackBerry MDM and security platform to iOS and Android, hoping to play in multi-device world

Four months after announcing BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, its bid to play in the multi-device enterprise, the firm has finally launched the platform for Android and iOS products. This extends the functionality of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) to non-RIM smartphones, supporting mobile device management (MDM) from a web-based console.

This is RIM's most critical launch of recent times, because as its presence in the corporate device market fades with the rise of BYOD (bring your own device) policies, it at least needs to be the back end player managing those various handsets and tablets. The hopes of turning the tide against Apple and Android at the client end are gone, but RIM could still persuade loyal enterprises to hold onto its famous facilities for messaging and security, giving it a role in the booming MDM field.

Mobile Fusion was made available for BlackBerry and PlayBook products in February and will also support the upcoming BlackBerry 10, which will unify those two platforms. It supports key MDM functions such as 256-bit AES encryption, access controls, and the enforcement of corporate policies for provisioning, updating and monitoring mobile products. Other features include application updating, connectivity management for Wi-Fi and VPNs, and remote locking and wiping.

The launch of Fusion for third party systems was timely, coming just days after RIM's new CEO, Thorsten Heins, outlined a new strategy, focusing most of the vendor's resources on its enterprise heartland. Heins told an investor call: "We plan to refocus on the enterprise business and capitalize on our leading position in this segment. RIM was late for the bring your own device movement, and we saw significant slowing down in our enterprise subscriber growth rate as a result. I am committed, with my team, to reclaiming lost market share in this space."

Although some of RIM's capabilities, especially in security, are well respected, even Heins admitted they are not equally valued by all kinds of organizations, and it needs to develop a broader range of added value features to maximize Fusion's appeal. The MDM market is a crowded one, where enterprise software majors like SAP/Sybase and Oracle are vying with specialists like MobileIron as well as cloud services and operator offerings.

Mobile Fusion is a free download and RIM will have client access licences starting at $99 per user or $4 per user per month. The application is priced based on the number of devices being managed.

"For businesses and government, managing a mix of mobile devices on any scale is chaotic," RIM's VP of enterprise product management, Alan Panezic, told Bloomberg. "BlackBerry Mobile Fusion allows organizations to manage a mixed environment of devices in the most secure, simple, and cost efficient manner possible. It also means that businesses and government do not have to move to the lowest common denominator on security for all the devices they need to manage."

CAROLINE GABRIEL

rethink-wireless.com

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