Contributor: Godwin Bassey is a System Administrator, and an enthusiastic blogger with particular interests in concept devices, automobile tech, audio video tech, computing, gizmos & mobile devices. You can follow him on twitter – @DaTecNerd
The simplest answer is that Mobile Fusion is a Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that fuses the deployment and management of multiple device platforms to on console. It should be said that this is nothing new and there are many MDM options out there, but for my it’s exciting because with the Fusion announcement we have a better look at how the PlayBook and BBX devices will be handled at the corporate enterprise level.
Mobile Fusion will allow a corporate admin to provision multiple devices on multiple platforms for one user. In an example in the webinar a user had a BlackBerry Torch 9180, BlackBerry PlayBook, iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy Tab setup under his profile. Fusion connects to BES 5.0.3 and higher allowing for deployment of BES IT policies on the BlackBerry smartphone and device management in a one-stop-shop console.
As you can see it’s just a matter of clicking on the appropriate tab of the device you wish to administer. One thing that RIM emphasized several times is that the Mobile Fusion will allow the users to still “have fun with their device”. Users want choice, flexibility and fun with their smartphone and Fusion allows for that while not comprising corporate security. The system will utilize the BlackBerry Balance protocol which puts up a wall between corporate and personal information and data.
Some interesting features outlined are:
- Employee self-service site, which allows user to remote wipe and remote lock device
- No limits on number of devices a user can have provisioned
- Mobile Fusion is capable of managing up to 10,000 devices at any one time
- Fully supports virtual server environments
