BlackBerry Secure Work Space Technology in the Works for iOS

BlackBerry’s expertise in enterprise and security has triggered the company to work on a multi-platform enterprise mobile management solution, Secure Work Space for iOS and Android, which has now entered into the closed beta testing phase.


The solution aims to separate and secure work and personal data on mobile devices running iOS and Android, and will be managed through BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, which will soon be updated to extend BlackBerry security capabilities for data-at-rest and data-in-transit to completely separate work and personal data.

The BlackBerry Secure Work Space solution addresses the issues of the hot BYOD trend, which has its own share of benefits and drawbacks. According to the press release, the solution includes secured client applications for email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, secure browsing, and document editing for devices provisioned via BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10.

“With BlackBerry® Balance™ technology, we offer the industry”s only true compromise-free separation of work and personal data and applications,” said David J Smith, EVP, Enterprise Mobile Computing. “With Secure Work Space for iOS and Android devices, we”re extending as many of these features as possible to other platforms, critical in today”s Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) world. BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 offers administrators a single, intuitive platform enabling them to effectively and securely manage a variety of devices while protecting their corporate assets and at the same time providing employees the flexibility they desire.”

Although the BYOD trend indeed helps companies boost productivity, there is a lack of tools for addressing security, data loss and privacy concerns, as the devices contain sensitive data, and they are used outside the corporate firewall. The rise of malware — especially in the case of Android — also raises concerns. The BlackBerry solution addresses the above concerns.

“The vast majority of smartphones on the market aren”t adequately secure for corporate or government work,” said Robert Enderle, Principal Analyst, Enderle Group. “Currently BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 combined with BlackBerry Balance or Secure Work Space has the only volume solution which has been designed from the ground up to provide the security most IT departments require. With this announcement BlackBerry is expanding beyond their own top to bottom approach to security to address this need on other platforms. With this product BlackBerry is showcasing their security legacy by providing a stronger cross platform security solution than anyone else can in the market.”

BlackBerry has retained the most secure mobile platform title for years now, and the company isn’t showing signs of lowering its guard. Meanwhile, iOS is right behind with each major OS release Apple placing the benchmark higher.