21st Century Enterprise - Blackberry Blend

Lets collaborate securely by using cloud and BYOD! Wah??? This is exactly what my first reaction was when a friend of mine told me about Blackberry Blend. As a technologist at heart, I simply couldn't make sense of secure collaboration by using cloud and BYOD, sometimes without compromising some basic security and data mgmt principals. Apparently Blackberry made it possible through Blackberry Blend.

I found this video helpful in understanding the effectiveness of Blackberry Blend in 21st Century Enterprise.



Cloud Computing Problem

The first problem faced by 21st Century Enterprises is the Cloud Computing. The whole idea of using cloud based technologies, like Google Apps, Office 365, Zoho, etc. is to achieve business efficiency by creating, sharing information or automating business functions at lowest cost possible. Philosophically speaking, it is an excellent idea. Practically, cloud based technologies are not where they should be and pose many concerns especially with respect to data and security policies. In my opinion, it will take quite some time for cloud based technologies to achieve the required maturity to really make on-premise solutions look like legacy solutions.

BYOD Problem

Second complication in 21st Century Enterprises is the BYOD. We are not living in 1990's where PC was the king and the only device people would use on daily basis. Now, you may have a desktop/laptop at work and home. Most of you may not be able to imagine a life without a smart phone if tablet is not the device of your choice for day to day browsing. The relation of people and the device is much more personalized these days than it was ever before. This is another golden opportunity for enterprises to appreciate people to bring their own devices at work for added cost savings, but again data and security policies can still be jeopardized.

Solution:

The biggest problem I see in light of the above mentioned issues is to find an equilibrium between control over the data and control over the technology. Today if you try to control data absolutely, you will find yourself getting stuck with on-premise systems and enterprise owned devices, which means extremely high operating cost.

After watching the video above, for the first time I am seeing somebody coming up with a solution targeting the above mentioned two crucial pain points of the time with absolute out of the box thinking, and I see Blackberry Blend really providing help to gain equilibrium for one of the most complicated equation of the time; BYOD + Cloud = Data + Security.

You can find more information here on Blackberry Blend.