BlackBerry is in need of some good news and it got some on Thursday when it announced that its BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 has gained the authority to operate on the United States Department of Defense’s network. The company says that BES 10 is the first mobile device management service that has been approved to run on the Pentagon’s network, which is a big win for a company that is facing fierce competition in the MDM space from firms such as MobileIron. The Defense Department’s approval of BES 10 means also paves the way for the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 smartphones to run on its network and BlackBerry says that the Defense Information System Agency “is architecting the capacity to support 10,000 BlackBerry 10 smartphones by this fall and 30,000 by the end of 2013 on DoD networks.” The company’s full press release follows below.
BlackBerry Awarded “Authority to Operate” on U.S. Department of Defense Networks
DISA deploying BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 to support BlackBerry 10 smartphones on DoD networks
Waterloo, ON – BlackBerry® (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB) today announced the U.S. Defense Information System Agency (DISA) has given BlackBerry® Z10 and BlackBerry® Q10 smartphones with BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10, the Authority to Operate (ATO) on Department of Defense (DoD) networks. BlackBerry is the first Mobile Device Management (MDM) provider to obtain an ATO.
With the ATO, DISA is now developing the infrastructure to support BlackBerry 10 smartphones. DISA is architecting the capacity to support 10,000 BlackBerry 10 smartphones by this fall and 30,000 by the end of 2013 on DoD networks.
“Being the first smartphones to be supported on U.S. Department of Defense networks further establishes BlackBerry’s proven and validated security model,” said Scott Totzke, SVP, BlackBerry Security Group at BlackBerry. “With foreign entities – governmental and criminal – ramping up attacks on electronic communications and information systems, BlackBerry provides government agencies with a proven partner that follows top-to-bottom security protocols.”
Receiving the ATO is a critical step forward in the security certification process. The approval demonstrates that BlackBerry 10 smartphones meet DoD’s most stringent security requirements. BlackBerry 10 smartphones will enable DoD personnel to have the ability to securely connect to networks and access assets from work. The BlackBerry mobile infrastructure provides a highly responsive, intelligent and intuitive mobile computing experience while ensuring the personal and the corporate information on a user’s phone are kept separate and safe.
