14 DAY TRIAL // One of the announcements that Research In Motion made on Monday at the BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Florida, included the release of a multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution that would offer support for a wide range of mobile devices, beside the BlackBerry smartphones.
The new solution is aimed at enterprises and government organizations, the company announced, adding that it would bring to them market-leading management, security and controls that BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express include.
The availability of the solution on more platforms that just BlackBerry would be possible courtesy of RIM’s pending acquisition of ubitexx (creator of the ubi-Suite device management solution), and should reach Android and iOS based devices and tablets.
“The multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution is designed to address a growing market and respond to requests from enterprise customers who want a secure multi-platform device management solution from a company that already delivers the gold standard for enterprise mobility,” said Peter Devenyi, Vice President, Communications Platform Group at Research In Motion.
“We recognize the opportunity to continue leading in the enterprise market by providing customers with a common platform to help simplify the management of a variety of mobile devices.”
All of the features and capabilities of BES would arrive on new platforms through a single web-based console, designed to offer to IT administrators all of the features they require for the distribution of software and management of policies, inventory, security and services for mobile devices.
The solution will offer IT administrators the possibility to manage devices over-the-air, activate them, distribute software, lock or wipe out devices, and more.
While most of the features will be available for all devices out there, some of them will remain exclusive to BlackBerry devices, since the capabilities were packed with the OS on them.
“Examples include RIM’s industry-leading push technology, network and data usage efficiency, behind-the-firewall access to enterprise applications and systems, and many of the over 550 IT policies available through BlackBerry Enterprise Server,” the company notes.
The BlackBerry Balance technology, which was unveiled on Monday, aimed at keeping a user's private and enterprise lives separate on the same device, will also remain exclusive to BlackBerry devices.
“The multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution will be comprised of optional architectural components based on the configuration of an organization’s mobile deployment and their operational needs,” the company announced.
There will also be a series of optional components, such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express for BlackBerry devices, as well as a separate server for Android and iOS devices, which is based on the ubi-Suite from ubitexx.
The multi-platform solution should become available later this year. RIM announced registration for a product preview of the ubitexx solution available here.