MWA: CA cracks the BlackBerry management problem

DALLAS--With its business from managed services providers such as Verizon Business, BT Business Services and Sprint nearly doubling over the last year and momentum building from its 2006 acquisition of Wily Technology, CA expanded its managed services portfolio with a new Mobile Device Management solution, which it introduced this week at the TM Forum’s Management World Americas.

The CA MDM will manage BlackBerry devices for enterprise users. According to Robin Bienfait, chief information officer at Research in Motion overseeing BlackBerry operations and corporate IT, who gave a keynote address at the event, one in 44 people in North America carry BlackBerry devices. RIM also supports 90% of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies, and CA aims to get a good piece of that business by either selling to enterprises directly or through managed services providers.

“I believe this market will completely play out at the service provider layer,” said Norman Rice, vice president of communications, media and entertainment at CA. “However, we will play both sides. Our approach is to serve the enterprise client. Whether we do that through their IT department or through the MSP, we’re open to both.”

The mobile device management solution uses over-the-air connectivity to simplify the provisioning and ongoing management of mobile devices. It has a configurable self-service portal for registering devices, managing passwords and addressing problems without assistance from an enterprise’s corporate help desk. It also unifies core management tasks such as security management, asset inventory, configuration management, policy compliance and reporting.

In addition to these features and over-the-air management, the MDM can automatically disable a device, enact a bulk addition of features, customize workflow for support processes and escalations and automate role-based device security. It can auto-discover thousands of devices in a few hours.

The solution can integrate with other CA solutions, including asset management, identity manager and the security command center. This ensures that Blackberry devices are incorporated into the broader set of enterprise IT governance best practices. CA’s active directory also enables ongoing synchronization, monitoring and automated reconfiguration.

According to research firm IDS, the mobile device management market will grow from $192.1 million in 2005 to $679.7 million by 2010.

One of the primary strategic opportunities CA has identified is growing its managed services provider business. If all the buzz around device management, local area networking and in-home networking pans out, the managed services market will indeed be one to consider.

“Wireless subscriptions are slowing, and managed services has become an area of interest and investment again,” Rice said.