Mobile Device Management

While the tone of most recent media coverage of BlackBerry has understandably been one of doom and gloom, the company's mobile device management business retains substantial value, according to financial researchers.

BlackBerry the company will survive, but it's time to throw in the towel on BlackBerry the mobile platform vendor.

Mobile devices and the cloud have transformed the way business is conducted. HP introduced new tools today for business customers to leverage that transformation and work seamlessly with Salesforce and Good for Enterprise.

Customers are pushing the limits of the software -- asking it to manage and do many more things than it was originally created to do -- and vendors are happy to oblige.

Security and cultural issues are among many challenges government CIOs face in implementing mobile device management and BYOD strategies.

Forrester Research predicts that with the "bring your own device" (BYOD) trend expected to increasingly include laptops in addition to smartphones and tablets, the approach to managing those devices is in for some big changes.

Research in Motion Wednesday released an important part of its attempted comeback plan: BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, which is designed to manage the fast-growing, and increasingly diverse mobile device population in the enterprise.

Increasing numbers of business applications are helping mobile workers get things done in the field using tablets or smartphones, and more consumer applications support common business processes for mobile workers. More workers are using their own devices, and more people rely on multiple devices to access the same set of applications, depending on where they are and what they're doing.

Citrix plans to buy mobile device management company Zenprise and integrate its software with its Citrix CloudGateway and Me@Work software for managing mobile apps and data.

Research in Motion Thursday released an upgraded version of its mobile management software designed to help its users prepare for a "simple and straightforward upgrade" to the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 release slated for early next year.