‘Secure Work Space’ Makes BES 10 More iOS, Android Friendly

In March, BlackBerry announced that it would soon bring to market an enterprise technology that lets organizations create separate work and personal “silos” on their corporate iOS and Android devices, so that users’ corporate information can be managed without affecting personal data. The feature, called “Secure Work Space for iOS and Android,” is very similar to the BlackBerry-specific BlackBerry Balance featuresin the company’s BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) 10 offering, but tailored for Google Android and Apple iOS devices.

Today BlackBerry released Secure Work Space for iOS and Android, and it is currently available for download.

From BlackBerry:

“Secure Work Space is a new containerization, application-wrapping and secure connectivity option that delivers a higher level of control and security to iOS and Android devices, all managed through the single BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 administration console.

“Managed applications are secured and separated from personal apps and data, providing an integrated email, calendar and contacts app, an enterprise-level secure browser and secure attachment viewing and editing with Documents To Go™.

“User authentication is required to access secure apps and work data cannot be shared outside the secure work space.”

Secure Work Space for iOS and Android creates an AES 256-bit encrypted work space on iOS and Android devices, and allows secure access to corporate directories and lookup features; corporate calendar and appointments; tasks; corporate Intranets and other behind-the-firewall data; a secure browser; document-viewing and editing tools; and more.

Devices with Secure Work Space can be managed alongside BlackBerry smartphones or on their own via BlackBerry’s centralized BES 10 Management Console. And administrators can use this Management Console to customize a number of security settings to block the sharing of messages, content and data that’s stored within the Work Space.

BlackBerry is not the first company to announce a product that separates work and personal data on non-BlackBerry phones; Samsung recently announced a similar offering for Android devices as part of its KNOX enterprise product. But BlackBerry’s BES 10 offers a single, centralized console for managing and customizing work and personal silos for different devices.

The new Secure Work Space features are designed to help organizations with BlackBerry deployments use tools that they’re already familiar with and invested in to manage different kinds of devices and eliminate the need to run and maintain multiple management systems for different devices. (For more details read, “RIM Execs Dish Details on BlackBerry 10, BES 10 and the Enterprise.”)

Check out the video above for a quick look at Secure Work Space for iOS and Android—and for some pretty intense mood music.

And visit BlackBerry.com to learn more about BES 10 and Secure Work Space technology or to download the new software.

AS