Research In Motion (RIM) unveiled new features for its BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, in London, this week.
Alan Panezic, VP for platform products and management for RIM, says the company has paid particular attention to security on the device and easy management, which is what most customers have asked for.
The server control panel has been redesigned to use a Web-based platform over what used to be a Win32 application. “IT managers no longer need to load the management console onto each machine they need to use. They can now access it from anywhere.”
The new solution allows IT managers to fully lockdown any BlackBerry that has access to business applications through the new version Enterprise Server. The security mechanism can range from preventing users from using the camera, through to any other application that can be pushed to the device.
Panezic says the biggest problems RIM has faced with the mobile devices being used in the business case are those around users being able to transfer information outside of the company firewall. “With the new security lockdown, those kinds of problems can be managed and information can now be kept in a secure way.”
However, the new features do not allow for dual profiling. Most South African consumers are happy to use their BlackBerry for both work and personal purposes, and often bring their own devices to the office. The problem is that the security lockdown cannot be circumvented by the user - which will make it less likely consumer devices will be brought into the office.
RIM has made the application programming interfaces for Enterprise Server 5.0 available so that companies with personal solutions that would like to propagate access to the BlackBerry can do so.
New goodies
Panezic's discussion at the Cumberland Hotel, in London, this week, gave a taste of what can be expected from RIM over the next few weeks.
He said the company is working on a mobile voice solution that will allow a phone call to be taken from any device a user chooses. “The new mobile voice solution will do to the PABX what the BlackBerry has done for e-mail.”
The company is also taking a look at what can be done with multimedia. RIM has been particularly well known for its good compression for data; however, video is notorious for being difficult to compress.
While Panezic says RIM has made no breakthrough on compressing video more than it has been already, it is looking into the best way to propagate that video across mobile networks. The company acquired Chocmedia last year, a specialist in compression technologies.
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