BlackBerry Announces New Identity and Access Solutions Allowing Enterprises to Embrace Mobility and Cloud Services with Confidence
BlackBerry's identity management pedigree used to develop solutions for VPN authentication and federated access to cloud services
WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(Nov. 13, 2014) - BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ:BBRY)(TSX:BB), a global leader in mobile communications, announced today two identity and access solutions: Enterprise Identity by BlackBerry® and VPN Authentication by BlackBerry®. These solutions will enable enterprise workers to be more productive without compromising security or cost effectiveness.
BlackBerry operates one of the largest global identity management services in the industry to support our BBM™ messaging service and the core BlackBerry service. This involves managing more than 200 million identities and processing more than 120 million identity transactions daily. BlackBerry is leveraging this core expertise and the supporting global infrastructure to enable these new identity and access solutions.
"The proliferation of mobile devices and cloud services in the enterprise make identity and access even more challenging and important," said Rob Enderle of Enderle Group. "It is a mission-critical need to ensure appropriate access to resources while also meeting rigorous compliance requirements. Behind their decades of experience securing mobile environments, BlackBerry has become a leader in identity management. BlackBerry's identity and access solutions help simplify the important task of enabling the right individuals to access resources for the right reasons."
Enterprises and their employees are relying more on the growing number of cloud based services that Forrester Research estimates will reach a market size of $133 billion in 2020(1). Enterprise Identity by BlackBerry will provide organizations a simple way to manage cloud-based services with a single point of entitlement, control and audit for all cloud services, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and internal applications. It will also make it easy for employees to access all their enterprise cloud applications by allowing them to use just one set of familiar network credentials.
VPN Authentication by BlackBerry will be an entirely new way to securely connect increasingly mobile employees to their organization's network when and where it is needed. The solution will allow employees to use their iOS, Android™ or BlackBerry® smartphone for two factor authentication, which means no user passwords or PINs. This will eliminate the need for the issuance, management and use of costly and inconvenient hardware tokens, helping minimize overall expenses and improve employee productivity.
"BlackBerry is one of the world's largest identity providers- managing more than 120 million identity transactions each day," said John Sims, President, Global Enterprise Services, BlackBerry. "This experience and knowledge, combined with our strength in security enables BlackBerry to meet the growing use of the cloud and demand to access enterprise applications from any device, anywhere. We're offering new value added services that go beyond traditional EMM capabilities, because organizations need to shift gears and think about being mobile first. We're helping them achieve that goal."
BlackBerry's identity and access solutions complement BES12™: a cross-platform EMM solution by BlackBerry® launched today that manages iOS, Android, Windows Phone® and BlackBerry devices.
Enterprise Identity by BlackBerry benefits will include:
- Single point of control: Provides control over and management of access to a wide range of services, offering policies for entitlement and authentication. The solution helps achieve compliance, offering reporting and auditing across cloud services. And with the BlackBerry Identity Proxy, it's possible to securely take advantage of the power of an existing on-premise directory without copying or syncing sensitive corporate data to the cloud.
- One person, identity and sign on: An employee has one sign on for all their enterprise applications, eliminating the need for the employee to manage and recall many usernames and passwords. This improves the user experience, giving employees more seamless access to their business and productivity applications, and reducing calls to IT for password resets.
- Easy to deploy: A turn-key solution that is easy to deploy, Enterprise Identity by BlackBerry does not require significant investment for integration. It is standards-based and offers a host of pre-federated cloud services allowing a cost-effective solution to entitlement and access for all types of users.
VPN Authentication by BlackBerry features will include:
- Reduce cost and hassle: Offering a user experience superior to traditional hardware tokens, VPN Authentication by BlackBerry also reduces overall IT hardware and support costs. It works with managed iPhone, Android and BlackBerry devices, including those that have already been deployed, offering superior value and equivalent or better security. And by eliminating support required for synchronization problems and PIN resets through the helpdesk, the solution helps reduce support costs and time wasted by employees.
- Secure and scalable: With Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) authentication and an on-premises server, VPN Authentication by BlackBerry keeps security high when moving away from traditional hardware tokens. And with Active Directory integration, IT can quickly deploy and control VPN access and configuration of user profiles.
- Flexible authentication options: The solution can be customized to an organization's policies and requirements, with tailored authentication methods for different user groups. Get two-factor authentication by choosing device or Active Directory credentials as the first factor, while one-click acceptance on the smartphone acts as the second factor.
VPN Authentication by BlackBerry will be available for iOS and Android devices with BES12 and available for BlackBerry devices with BES5, BES10 or BES12. VPN Authentication by BlackBerry has no upfront or perpetual license costs, and will start at $3 USD per user, per month (billed annually). Enterprise Identity by BlackBerry and VPN Authentication by BlackBerry will be available later this year.
For additional information on Enterprise Identity by BlackBerry visit: www.blackberry.com/enterpriseidentity.
For more information on VPN Authentication by BlackBerry visit: www.blackberry.com/vpnauthentication.
(1) Forrester Research Inc. "The Public Cloud Market Is Now In Hypergrowth" by Andrew Bartels, John R. Rymer, James Staten with Khalid Kark, Joanna Clark, Dominique Whittaker, April 24, 2014.
About BlackBerry
A global leader in mobile communications, BlackBerry® revolutionized the mobile industry when it was introduced in 1999. Today, BlackBerry aims to inspire the success of our millions of customers around the world by continuously pushing the boundaries of mobile experiences. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry operates offices in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The Company trades under the ticker symbols "BB" on the Toronto Stock Exchange and "BBRY" on the NASDAQ. For more information, visit www.BlackBerry.com.
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