BlackBerry on Thursday unveiled a comprehensive mobile-security platform for a wide variety of Internet of Things devices connected to enterprises.
Called BlackBerry Secure, the mobile security software and related services will combine key technologies from recent BlackBerry acquisitions including Good Technology, WatchDox, AtHoc and Encription. The company detailed its efforts in a blog post.
BlackBerry emphasized that the new approach will simplify management and security for smartphones, tablets, sensors and industrial devices, among other objects, that it calls the “Enterprise of Things.” With this new approach, customers will be able to simplify management and lower cost.
“Blackberry is no longer about the smartphone, but about the smart in the phone and in cars and containers and medical devices and wearables and industrial devices,” BlackBerry Chief Operating Officer Marty Beard said in a late afternoon conference call.
“We believe this is the most comprehensive mobile security platform for the emerging Enterprise of Things,” Beard said.
BlackBerry officials said BlackBerry Secure is more than a re-branding of previous offers made to enterprises, since it combines disparate software platforms — a process that took company engineers nearly a year to complete. Customers will be able to access device management and security from a single back-end and a single front-end.
Customers will also be able to pick and choose capabilities under a set of five different suites revolving around the BlackBerry BES12 software that meets their needs. Payment will be made using an annual subscription model.
Carl Weise, president of global sales, said BlackBerry Secure is already in early trials with dozens of existing BlackBerry customers, though no customers were named. “We’ve gotten very good feedback on the early trials,” he said.
BlackBerry Secure will be available in the first 10 days of January, he said.
One benefit will allow an enterprise to distribute BlackBerry Secure management and security capabilities across an entire enterprise without the need for a VPN. Instead of provisioning from several administrative points in an organization, the process “can be done at once,” he said. “There will lots of detail with scalability—we have 100,000 users in some enterprises,” he said.
BlackBerry said BlackBerry Secure opens up potential for new vertical markets, although officials emphasized the company’s traditional customer base in financial services, healthcare, legal and government. “They’re very excited about this,” Weise said.
