Jeff Holleran, BlackBerry Senior Director of Enterprise Product Management, has just set up a BlackBerry device with a BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 deployment, including adding the user to a group. Take a look at what’s next for pushing public apps from BlackBerry World to the device:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Deploying and managing mobile applications can help increase productivity and provide behind-the-firewall access to corporate data, and it’s a critical aspect of a wider mobile strategy. Does your organization manage and deploy mobile apps to its employees? Share in the comments below.

• Is RIM getting rid of BlackBerry Enterprise Server?
• What does the inclusion of Microsoft® ActiveSync® protocols mean for security?
• Can iOS and Android devices (both tablets and smartphones) be managed with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion? Will the management be secure?
• How will BlackBerry® 10 devices be managed?

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion: BlackBerry Enterprise Server and More

BlackBerry Enterprise Server has a rich history and is recognized as the most secure enterprise mobility device management solution available. Since its inception, the solution has grown in functionality, scalability, and a wide variety of other feature sets, and is now on version 5.0.3.

In the meantime, things in the market have gotten a bit messy and more than a bit challenging for IT administrators, IT specialists, and CIOs. Organizations are under pressure to support a wide variety of devices from multiple manufacturers, as well as multiple form factors, with tablets gaining steam as business tools. As a longstanding pillar of MDM in the enterprise, we’ve worked to provide a clean, simple, and secure solution to help you manage whatever gets thrown your way. This is BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. It’s a huge leap forward for device management, and it’s built on the valued security model introduced with BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The evolution of BlackBerry Enterprise Server is BlackBerry Mobile Fusion.

Microsoft ActiveSync: What’s the Deal?

With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet adds support for Microsoft ActiveSync technology. ActiveSync is a common email/PIM synchronization and transport protocol, which is used by Microsoft® Exchange and other on-premise and cloud mail/messaging providers. Microsoft ActiveSync on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is designed to allow consumers to connect to popular mail platforms such as Gmail® or Windows Live™. Individuals and small businesses can also use its transport functions for integration with Microsoft® Exchange, IBM® Lotus® Notes Traveler, and other Microsoft ActiveSync enabled systems.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion leverages Microsoft ActiveSync as an email and PIM sync protocol while providing enterprises with many of the same advantages that a BlackBerry Enterprise Server does for a BlackBerry smartphone. Namely, a straightforward yet highly secure connectivity model: proven BlackBerry end-to-end 256-bit encryption, and a behind-the-firewall path for applications, the browser, email, and PIM.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and Corporate Data Security

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is designed to establish and maintain a BlackBerry Secure Connection from the business network to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, leveraging the unique RIM infrastructure that IT departments around the world know and trust. Additionally, BlackBerry® Balance™ technology on BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 and enabled BlackBerry® smartphones is designed to create a secure corporate perimeter so that all corporate applications and data remain secure on a device and separate from personal data.

With BlackBerry Balance and secure enterprise connectivity, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion provides leading platform-level security for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and future BlackBerry 10 devices (smartphones and tablets), enabling administrators to manage, secure, and audit corporate data and applications, while preserving a seamless and personal user experience.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is also designed to enable companies to push applications directly to end users, or make them available for users to optionally download. The apps will conveniently appear in a tab labeled “Work” in BlackBerry App World™. End users get the rich app experience they expect, while enterprise data is kept separate and secure.

Managing iOS and Android Devices

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion extends the BlackBerry mobile device management to iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion supports the latest MDM capabilities available in iOS and Android, and is designed to enable administrators to apply corporate policies and configurations to manage and secure these devices. Additionally, customers will be able to leverage the application management capabilities of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion to manage the distribution of mobile applications to employees on these platforms.

Customers can of course leverage their existing investments, relationships, and support agreements with RIM to consistently and securely manage the personal and company owned mobile devices used by employees.

BlackBerry 10: How Mobile Fusion Prepares You for the Future

The benefits that BlackBerry Mobile Fusion provides customers today for managing the deployment and use of BlackBerry PlayBook tablets will also apply when BlackBerry 10 devices arrive later this year. This means that customers can deploy BlackBerry Mobile Fusion now knowing that managing future BlackBerry 10 devices will be seamless.

Conclusion: One MDM Solution to Manage Them All

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is a unified, multi-platform, mobile device management solution. It will provide one place to manage BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and future BlackBerry 10 devices (tablets and smartphones), as well as iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

Building on a foundation of over 10 years of experience in mobile device management (MDM), BlackBerry Mobile Fusion makes RIM the best partner for MDM solutions. This means that enterprise customers only have to contact one trusted global vendor for support.

-Alan Panezic, VP Enterprise Product Management, Research In Motion

People get excited by the “magic” of smartphones and tablets. Every party, conference, or event that I attend, there’s always someone showing me the new wallpaper they created for their BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet or the cool case they just bought for their BlackBerry® Curve™ smartphone. When RIM® launches a new device, there are events and guest appearances, and it’s a ton of fun. You can see the device, touch it, try it…and it’s all very exciting. But what I’m most passionate about is all of the stuff that’s invisible. I know it may not be as “sexy” as what’s on the outside, but it’s incredibly important – it’s the networks, software, tools, and other invisible components that make a product…productivity, and turning technology toys into useful tools.

With this in mind, I’m thrilled to be sharing details about the next evolution in managing and securing mobile devices – RIM’s new BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion! IT departments from thousands of organizations around the world have come to depend on the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server solution. Building on this rich heritage, today we are making available an initial release of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. It’s another one of those behind-the-scenes, invisible pieces run by IT folks…but, it’s the first end-to-end Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution that is designed to manage BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, along with BlackBerry smartphones, and iOS and Android™-based devices in the near future.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion should be thought of as an overarching framework that includes a number of components. In this initial launch, there are a few key components for IT managers to be aware of:

• BlackBerry Mobile Fusion Studio
• BlackBerry Enterprise Server
• BlackBerry Device Service

Manage Devices and Users In One Place

At the ‘top’, so to speak, is BlackBerry Mobile Fusion Studio. Essentially this is a web-based admin console designed to provide a single place for an IT staffer to manage devices, users, configurations, policies and more.

The interface can be used to access select features of BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express (within multiple BlackBerry domains), as well as the new BlackBerry Device Services (which I’ll get to shortly). Essentially, this is your new one-stop shop.

Build On Your Current Environment

As mentioned, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion Studio integrates with BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Essentially there’s no change to this core product, but it’s important to understand how this technology fits into the big picture. Assuming that you’ve upgraded to BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0.3 (I hope you read my previous post and took advantage of the upgrade incentives!), you’ll continue to manage your current deployment of BlackBerry smartphones through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server with virtually no impact to the capabilities or functionalities that you’re accustomed to. What is new is that the BlackBerry Enterprise Server will ‘feed’ into BlackBerry Mobile Fusion to allow for greater overall management visibility and a single point of control. Through the unified administrative interface of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, you’ll be able to access common management functions, creating a single place to perform the most common tasks to help you manage your deployments.

Configure Policies and Settings for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Also integrated into BlackBerry Mobile Fusion Studio is the new BlackBerry Device Service. Now this is where it gets really exciting! BlackBerry Device Service provides the management features that can allow organizations to manage the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

We hear from our enterprise customers that chief amongst the myriad reasons for this hesitant state is the lack of security and difficulty managing tablets. BlackBerry Device Service is designed to enable organizations to address these very issues as a part of an overall device management strategy.

Using a USB connection and BlackBerry® Web Desktop Manager, a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet can be associated with an individual user. This allows you, the IT administrator to configure any BlackBerry PlayBook tablet for work purposes. After being enrolled in the work environment, you can configure all the key settings and IT policies for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet remotely.

And this is, of course, just the beginning…but what an exciting beginning it is! Over the coming weeks we’ll be digging into some of these components, interviewing various product experts, getting feedback from customers at BlackBerry Innovation Forum events, and sharing all of this with you through our various social channels – so stay tuned. Device management for Android™ and iOS devices is planned to be included in the full launch of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion.

Would your business benefit from a unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution that includes tablet management capabilities? Share in the comments below.