Research In Motion (RIM) has released BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365, a new service for business and government organisations that extends Microsoft Exchange Online to BlackBerry smartphones and allows customers to manage their BlackBerry deployments in the cloud.
BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is an intuitive web-based console for IT administrators to provision, manage and secure BlackBerry smartphones from anywhere and offers advanced administration and flexible smartphone self-service features to support an organisation’s BlackBerry deployment in the cloud.
The new BlackBerry Business Cloud Services enables wireless synchronisation with Microsoft Exchange Online email, calendar and organiser data from a BlackBerry smartphone and provides online access to employee self-service smartphone security functions, allowing users to easily reset a device password or remotely lock or wipe a device in the event of loss or theft.
The new Business Cloud Services include BlackBerry Balance technology, which presents a unified view of work and personal content on a BlackBerry smartphone while keeping the content separate and secure.
In addition, managed service providers, systems integrators, carriers, resellers and other partners can also use the cloud service to manage BlackBerry deployments on behalf of their customers.
Research In Motion Enterprise Product Management and Marketing vice-president Alan Panezic said the new cloud-based option allows customers to cost-effectively support mobility across their organisations and easily manage and secure their BlackBerry deployments.
"We continue to build upon the end-to-end BlackBerry solution for our business and government customers with both on-premise and cloud-based solutions, a range of technical support options to suit any size organization, and a growing ecosystem of apps and services for users," said Panezic.
Microsoft Exchange Product Management Group senior director Julia White said Microsoft’s partnership with RIM exemplifies its commitment to providing customers with the best productivity experience across the PC, browser and phone.
"The availability of BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is great news for Office 365 and BlackBerry customers who want to get the maximum benefit from these two business collaboration services," said White.
