BlackBerry mobile partners are now able to offer the company’s BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10) secure mobility management solution as a hosted service for business customers.
BES10 Hosted will provide business customers the same benefits of BlackBerry enterprise mobility management (EMM) and security features and advanced security capabilities without the need of employing a dedicated IT team to handle mobility management. Mobile hosting partners of the Waterloo, Ont-based smart phone company will provide the outsourced IT administration associated with securing and supporting iOS, Android and BlackBerry corporate devices.
Organizations around the world an increasingly moving to hosted IT services to mitigate in-house hardware and overheard costs, according to Jeff Holleran, senior director of enterprise product strategy at BlackBerry
“The hosted model is changing how organizations are approaching traditionally on-premise IT services,” he said in a recent blog post. “Making BES 10 available as a hosted service opens up opportunities for BlackBerry as well as our customers.”
So far other BES 10 Hosted partners announced by BlackBerry include: Exchange My Mail, a New York-based hosted exchange for small and medium sized business; Solvitio GmbH; and Hamburg-based mobile infrastructure company Isec7 Group.
BlackBerry’s Canadian partner is Ceryx Inc., a unified commuications and collabaoration solutions provider that serves mid-market and enterprise clients. Enterprise messaging and and mobility solutions are among the services it offers.
Holleran said the first benefit for hosting partners is the ability to offer customers BlackBerry security “out of the box.”
Second, BES 10 Hosted comes with an easy-to-use EMM self-service portal for easy authentication and device management making it simpler for partners to deploy and manage BES 10 for their customers.
Partners also get to offer customers some of BlackBerry’s latest enterprise services including BBM Protected and Secure Work Space for iOS and Android.
Other BES 10 benefits for partners include:
- Support from the hosting partners, backed by BlackBerry’s technical support
- Container options for all supported devices: Native built-in BlackBerry Balance for BlackBerry 10 devices and Secure Work Space for iOS and Android
- Application management capabilities such as the ability to distribute public apps, custom apps, ensure device compliance and centrally manage work apps via work app catalogs and software configuration profiles
- Unified console to manage existing BlackBerry OS devices as well as BlackBerry 10, iOS and Android devices
- Support for BES10 Gold level EMM and BBM Protected
So far BES 10 Hosted partners announced by BlackBerry include: Exchange My Mail, a New York-based hosted exchange for small and medium sized business; Solvitio GmbH; and Hamburg-based mobile infrastructure company Isec7 Group.
The pricing structure for BES 10 Hosted is per device, per month but specific prices will vary by partner, according to BlackBerry spokesperson, Joy Yap.
“We’re working closely with our hosting partners to deliver best-in-class managed services to customers in a way that meets their unique business needs without compromising on security, reliability and cost-efficiency,” said John Sims, president of enterprise services at BlackBerry.
“Exchange My Mail is Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certified and coupled with the availability of BES10 Hosted, the ultimate platform for secure end-to-end multiplatform mobility, we will now be able to offer our customers a robust solution for BlackBerry and third party devices,” said Steven Daneshgar, COO of Exchange My Mail. “From a security perspective, I’m pleased that our customers will have access to the only EMM solution that has achieved full operational capability for Department of Defense Networks, by offering BES10 Hosted.”
“It offers a diverse portfolio of mobile enterprise managed services, including dedicated BES10 hosting, high availability solutions, and fully managed services with the flexibility of monthly subscriptions,” said Marco Gocht, CEO of Isec7 Group. “This will allow customers to extend their cloud strategy for mobile infrastructures.”