With the new CEO taking charge at Research in Motion, many things as they stated are coming to a change. Most prominently is the firms’ direction in which they are headed, now reverting back to the market from which they gained popularity, the business market.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is the new monitoring software that RIM has put out, and this will the first of its kind. It is designed to be a complete interface from which other devices and smart phone such as the PlayBook tablet together with Android and iOS devices can be controlled.
Out of the three major developers in the market Research in Motion is the first to come out with such a product it may be replicated by others with a few tweaks as was the case with the BlackBerry devices, though the success of this launch will be a pivotal factor. This will also determine how successful RIM is with this new launch. RIM recognizes the fact that managing a wide array of devices can be quite a headache for IT administrators and the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is the solution they have come up with.
As of now BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is available as a free download though there is a catch, its licensing fee. The monitoring software itself is free though there is a license fee for every device which is managed through the interface this starts at $4 monthly, or equivalently $99 annual subscription. For those wanting to try it out first there is also a sixty day trial period free of cost.
The other thing to consider is that iOS and Android devices will require a small software upgrade to be completely functional with Mobile Fusion. Furthermore upcoming BlackBerry 10 devices will also be manageable through this integrated interface. Mobile Fusion will be great news for users in general as they no longer have to be bound to BlackBerry devices to be part of their enterprises.
BES servers will also be able to run Mobile Fusion though you will need to put on a universal device service on to them so that they can connect with PlayBook’s, Android devices and iOS devices. Mobile Fusion does differ from the standard BlackBerry enterprise server as it is not only made to forward and receive emails to all connected devices. Rather it acts more as a control tower to implement various IT policies that different environments may have in use. Essentially it will be the UDS with will act as the passage connecting all devices on the network to the Mobile Fusion.
Even with Fusion Mobile and UDS running this by no means factors out ActiveSync as that will still be required in order for users to access corporate emails. This will however have the added feature of making the devices which are logged on to the network to be completely secure.
According to what was mentioned by Mobile Fusions developers in their webinar it will not be possible to regulate whether or not the recommended apps for the devices are installed on to the device, though administrators will have the option to flush out company related data on the specific devices or even conduct a complete secure wipe.
For the UDS to be put into play firms or governments will still be needing their 2008 R2 servers which are running the IIS7, with the option available to them to either put Fusion Mobile on the same R2 or onto the BES server. Also UDS is unable to generate certificates for itself, the self assigned certificates, so a public certificate created for the UDS site will also come in handy.
