IT Blog/Current Events and Trends

Everyone in the our community these days seems to reference that Blackberry is dead and going out of business.  Everyone has a Driod, iPhone, or Windows Mobile phone…I think its somewhat comedy for the most part because the rest of the world still uses Blackberry.  Its secure, reliable, and easy to manage.  Its truly a global phone and that was clearly indicated here from a recent trip down to Panama City, Panama.  Everyone in Latin America uses Blackberry for the specific reason of Blackberry Messenger…its free, you can send voice clips, as well as files very easily for free.  I have a few clients down in Latin America and they all user Blackberry because is the easy administration.Blackberry is losing status as a cool and sexy device, but cool and sexy is not what IT and security needs. The constant attention on the enterprise that RIM delivers is what business needs. A few examples of RIM’s dead-on enterprise focus:

E-mail: Like it or not, most businesses run Microsoft Exchange for corporate communications. Apple has made great strides in making iOS compatible with Exchange servers. Yet issues still crop up when the iPhone’s operating system gets updated. When iOS 4 debuted last year, iPhones running iOS4 had problems speaking with Exchange Active Sync Recently, a problem was discovered with iOS 5 and Exchange Active Sync policies that were configured to require storage encryption, a security setting that some businesses must deploy.

Android also supports Exchange, but the wide variety of handsets, each by the carriers, each with custom interface skins, result in a platform with no uniform across-the-board experience. Third-party apps, which are often used to make Exchange and Android work in near-perfect unison, are cause for IT headaches. Apps can sometimes break with OS updates. Lone or small groups of developers who create the apps may not have the resources to provide enterprise-level support.

With BlackBerry Enterprise Server, RIM has an extensive history in Exchange support. BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 is fully certified to work with Exchange 2010 and comes with full technical support services, which is critical for IT. With full support, IT has an almost guarantee of faster turnaround time for solution of any BlackBerry problems, and RIM can be held accountable if they don’t deliver as promised.

Security: To date, RIM’s PlayBook tablet is the only tablet to have Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance. FIPS is mandatory for devices used by the U.S. government. BlackBerry also addresses HIPPA compliance, publishing a detailed whitepaper. Yale University conducted an interesting study concluding that the BlackBerry was indeed HIPAA compliant (when used with BlackBerry Enterprise Server and Exchange). The institution declared the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad HIPAA compliant as well when used with Exchange. Android, on the other hand, lacks compliance, according to the study. BlackBerry has a good reputation when it comes to secure communications.

IT Management: BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is all about giving control to IT. It allows organizations to granularly manage BlackBerry devices, set policies, and perform remote wipes in a way that iOS and Android just can’t match natively. Sure, there are a host of third-party apps that offer varying levels of IT control over iPhones and Androids, but searching, for example, through the over 250,00 Androids apps that can deliver tools IT needs is time-consuming. Implementing them can be a potential security risk if they are coded poorly. BES offers those controls out of the box.

BlackBerry also addresses HIPPA compliance, publishing a detailed whitepaper. Yale University conducted an interesting study concluding that the BlackBerry was indeed HIPAA compliant (when used with BlackBerry Enterprise Server and Exchange). The institution declared the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad HIPAA compliant as well when used with Exchange. Android, on the other hand, lacks compliance, according to the study. BlackBerry has a good reputation when it comes to secure communications.  BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is all about giving control to IT. It allows organizations to granularly manage BlackBerry devices, set policies, and perform remote wipes in a way that iOS and Android just can’t match natively. Sure, there are a host of third-party apps that offer varying levels of IT control over iPhones and Androids, but searching, for example, through the over 250,00 Androids apps that can deliver tools IT needs is time-consuming. Implementing them can be a potential security risk if they are coded poorly. BES offers those controls out of the box.  BlackBerry has had great success focusing on the enterprise. Hopefully, RIM marketers, panting at the success of Apple, won’t steer BlackBerry from its biggest fan base: IT. Frankly, RIM can’t beat Apple at its own game. I really like the cool features of  Androids and iPhone’s but, in the office, BlackBerry is still tops.