MWC: BlackBerry unveils BES Cloud

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, BlackBerry announced BES12 Cloud, a cloud-based enterprise mobility management solution for the management of iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 devices.

BlackBerry has announced BES12 Cloud, a cloud-based enterprise mobility management solution that will offer easy management of iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry 10 smartphones and tablets, as well as a wide range of Samsung KNOX and Android for Work smartphones and tablets.

BES12 Cloud will offer customers more flexibility and choice in managing their mobile solution while supporting a broad range of device mobility policies, all through a simple browser interface and without complicated or expensive server installs.

A recent IDC Technology Spotlight underscored BlackBerry’s unique position in the enterprise market: “BlackBerry has taken the initiative to consider current and future EMM scenarios, and re-architect its EMM offering in a way that exhaustively addresses them. IDC believes BES12 meets the market’s extraordinarily complex requirements by delivering a modern platform to manage all endpoints.

BES12 Cloud provides all the core functionality of the on-premise design of BES12, but with greater ease and simplicity to manage and deploy. The BES12 platform is a cross-platform EMM solution that sits at the centre of a secure enterprise mobility ecosystem that extends beyond EMM to communications, collaboration, and identity and access management. BES12 Cloud offers 100 percent online registration and purchase process and it only takes minutes from purchase to EMM service availability in the cloud. Low monthly subscriptions also include BlackBerry’s award winning technical support.

BlackBerry always commits to deliver secure and innovative products to help our customers drive productivity and efficiency in their organizations, while reducing costs,” said Billy Ho, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Products and Value Added Solutions, BlackBerry. “Close relationships with our customers and partners is why we have announced our commitment to delivering a new BES12 Cloud solution later this month and delivered enhancements to BES12 and BBM Meetings today, continuing the expansion and evolution of our offering.

BES12 Cloud will provide expanded cross-platform EMM capabilities to securely manage any mobile deployment model such as BYOD, COPE and COBO, and will leverage BlackBerry’s trusted global infrastructure. BES12 Cloud is geared towards enterprises looking to manage mobile devices, protect their corporate data and enable employee productivity. Its simple setup and configuration also makes it easy for small and medium businesses (SMBs) to adopt cross platform MDM and take advantage of cloud-based productivity and collaboration solutions like BlackBerry Blend and BBM Meetings.

In a recent global study of individuals responsible for governance, risk and compliance in their enterprise, 77 percent reported that it is increasingly difficult to balance the needs of the business and those of the end user when it comes to mobility. The span of capabilities offered by BES12 along with BlackBerry’s unmatched security is why organizations such as Essar Group and Tarpon Energy Services. have selected BES12 as their EMM vendor of choice.

We have implemented BES12 in our organization to cater to the needs of EMM in our environment and are planning to trial the new BES12 Cloud solution,” said Jayantha Prabhu, Chief Technology Officer, Essar Group. “Our BYOD policy allows employees to have a choice. For example, some of our users have opted to upgrade to the BlackBerry 10 platform, especially those who want the QWERTY keyboard experience and have chosen a device like the BlackBerry Classic, while others are using Android, iOS or Windows devices. BES12 helps us manage all of this, with the peace of mind that our corporate data remains secure.

In addition to launching BES12 Cloud later this month, new enhancements to BES12 on-premise are now available. Key features and benefits of BES12 version 12.1 include:

· Government and Security Enhancements for BlackBerry 10: Enhancements build upon the end-to-end security enabled by vertical integration of BES12 EMM, BlackBerry Global Network Infrastructure and the BlackBerry 10 platform. New administrator capabilities include the ability to restrict and control access to specific BlackBerry 10 OS versions, configure message classification rules for work email, and perform wired activation of BlackBerry 10 devices with BES12 within tightly controlled, centralized deployments.

· Enhanced Android Management: BES12 version 12.1 adds support for Samsung KNOX Standard, the first phase of the BlackBerry and Samsung partnership which offers enhanced Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) controls for Samsung Android devices. Support for the KNOX Workspace is planned for an upcoming release of BES12 which will also feature BlackBerry Secure Connectivity.

· Enhanced Administrator Experience: Enhancements to the streamlined BES12 administrator experience include seamless administrator sign-on into the BES12 console without requiring login credentials and dynamic support for new BES12 IT policy controls as new OS updates are introduced.

BBM Meetings Enhancements

BBM Meetings is a multi-OS mobile first voice and video conferencing solution that makes it easy for mobile professionals to schedule, join or instantly start meetings when they’re on the go. New enhancements announced today for BBM Meetings include a Microsoft Outlook plugin that enables customers to directly schedule and start a BBM Meeting from the Microsoft Outlook client. This allows customers to use BBM Meetings just as seamlessly from their Windows desktop as they already do from their mobile device. Additional enhancements to BBM Meetings announced today include automatic scaling for shared screen viewing, enhanced in-meeting privacy controls for participants, and streamlined audio prompts when joining by phone dial-in.

BBM Protected Enhancements

BBM Protected provides enterprise-grade encryption for BBM messages between iPhone, Android and BlackBerry smartphones. An enhancement to BBM Protected announced today extends the security of BBM Protected conversations to non-BBM Protected users. Now all conversations initiated by a BBM Protected user can be secured, regardless of whether the other person is a BBM Protected user or not. Once the BBM Protected connection is established with the non-BBM Protected user, either user can initiate a secure chat environment. With this enhancement, now an enterprise using BBM Protected can be assured that all of their employees’ communications are fully protected, even when communicating outside of their company. An upcoming release of BBM Protected also includes an auto-passphrase feature, which makes the passphrase exchange happen automatically and seamlessly between two parties in a BBM Protected conversation. IT Administrators will have the option to turn on either feature via the Enterprise Identity by BlackBerry administration console.

Pricing and Availability

BES12 Cloud is now available as a closed beta and will be available worldwide through a combination of BlackBerry direct sales and channel partners later this month. To express interest in joining the closed beta, or be notified when BES12 Cloud is available at the end of the month, visit: www.BlackBerry.com/cloud.

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