Will Samsung enterprise deal transform Android security & BlackBerry's India fortunes?

The recent BlackBerry-Samsung enterprise mobility deal didn’t receive much press, especially in India. After all, Samsung brought BlackBerry to its knees in the devices space but while some may find it surprising that BlackBerry would ally with Samsung in any area, the world of tech is full of such examples.

For instance, few today would know or remember that Microsoft, then Apple’s arch-enemy (a place since taken over by Samsung), invested $150 million in Apple in 1997, when Apple was days away from bankruptcy and Steve Jobs reached out to Bill Gates. But while Samsung is today king of the mobility game, and the world’s No 1 smartphone maker, (albeit, on an increasingly shaky throne), the BlackBerry-Samsung deal seems like a deal among equals, since despite Knox Samsung is yet to make a huge impact on enterprise mobility, an arena where security is a major concern.

“The partnership with Samsung is a very big deal,” said John Jackson, a technology analyst at IDC. “It’s hard to imagine a partnership with more significant practical impact potential.” Under the deal, BlackBerry and Samsung will offer a ‘highly secure mobility solution’ for Samsung’s premium Android devices starting in early 2015. In fact, John Sims, BlackBerry’s head of enterprise services terms the deal, “the tip of the iceberg.” Looks like there is more news in this pipeline.

More from Biztech

Future Group - Reliance Retail Deal approved by CCI RBI ban on cryptocurrencies takes effect; prohibition could force investors to tap the black market

The deal is expected to help the Canadian smartphone maker broaden the reach of its new mobile-device management and security platform - dubbed BlackBerry Enterprise Service 12. BES12 will allow enterprises to manage and secure not only BlackBerry devices, but also those running operating systems such as Android, iOS and Windows. “We have slipped,” BlackBerry CEO John Chen said, but BES12 gives the company an opportunity to “recapture that [lost share] and build on it.”

The India Angle

BlackBerry India Managing Director Sunil Lalvani feels the ‘strategic partnership’ with Samsung will give BlackBerry access to a larger customer base to sell BES12.

“Now, every Samsung customer with a Knox integrated device is a potential BES12 customer. This partnership helps us strengthen our base and take it to the next level. The immediate benefit for BlackBerry is that we get a larger addressable market, and for Samsung the direct benefit is that the partnership gives them an edge over other Android players in the market, as Knox coupled with BES12 offers Samsung capabilities to bring a far more secure Android device to the market. This partnership is a win-win for both Samsung and BlackBerry,” explains Lalwani.

In India, Android has over 90 percent of the overall smartphone market in its green robotic arms. That means that any organisation considering BYOD in India can’t ignore Android, However, in the last 12-18 months, the number of malware, spyware and hacking incidents reported on the Android platform have grown and that worries enterprise customers. CIOs are losing more and more hair over Android vulnerabilities. Which means they looking for an additional level of security, and that’s where BlackBerry comes in like a knight in shining armour.

T G Dhandapani, Chief Information Officer at TVS Motors puts it bluntly, “We have tried Samsung Knox. The need for mobile security need not be over emphasised?.”

How it works

As part of the deal, Samsung sales representatives will also resell BES12 servers on behalf of BlackBerry. The partnership will also simplify security offerings provided by both companies. BlackBerry’s core strength comes from BES12 which acts as a command-and-control centre. One application with unified management control gives IT administrators the ability to view and manage multiple devices in the enterprise, be it Android, iOS, Windows or BlackBerry, in a single view.

“Our go-to-market strategy would be that either Samsung or us can deploy a BES12 server at enterprise environments; and number of licenses on BES12 that the customer chooses to enable would be based on the number of Knox-integrated Samsung devices that customer has.”

However, the commercial model will be announced during the time of roll out i.e. early 2015.

Will BlackBerry really gain?

In enterprises today, the security space is already cluttered, argues Gartner Principal Research Analyst Vishal Tripathi. “When there was BES securing BlackBerry devices, probably there was no match in the market, but now when you talk about securing Android devices, there are already players like AirWatch, MobileIron, Citrix and IBM. The Indian market is highly commoditised, and MDM solutions are available at throwaway prices,” he says.

Lalvani has a different take though on rivals in the MDM space. “This partnership is actually a marriage of two strong players in their respective fields. BlackBerry’s strength has always been in the provisioning of secure mobile communications to the enterprise, while Samsung has dominant market share in terms of the Android platform. The partnership leverages the strengths of both the companies, giving both BlackBerry and Samsung a collective edge over rivals like Apple.”

T G Dhandapani of TVS Motors agrees. “BES 12 is the ideal answer for ?mobile security. When we talk about mobile security it is better to side with a device manufacturer or telcos rather than third-party applications. BlackBerry today offers best-in-class mobile security but a choice needs to be offered to employees on multiple device platforms. This arrangement is handy more for mobile users as compared to BlackBerry or Samsung.”

“Samsung Knox provides the integration of security on the device, but whether the data and transit is encrypted or un-encrypted remains critical. The BES12 architecture provides end-to-end encryption and provides the most secure form of communication to Samsung users as compared to others Android devices. With over 75 independent third-party security certifications and far more scalability as compared to other offerings [one BES12 server can manage up to 25,000 devices and in a cluster mode or in a domain this can go up to 1,50,000 devices], BES12 makes BlackBerry the market leader. Globally, over the past two quarters since we launched BES10, we have had over 3 million plus users downloading BES10 licenses. In India alone, we have over 1,000 BES10 customers,” Lalwani claims.

“But, a lot of people in India still do not take Android security seriously,” Tripathi adds. “If I am a non-BlackBerry user then I am not going to use BlackBerry server to secure my non-BlackBerry device, and I will be more inclined to go with other MDM guys,” Tripathi adds.

“However, this deal will give BlackBerry some advantage. And coupled with their other strategies, this will help them get back on track and probably get back to what BlackBerry was known for,” the Gartner analyst concludes.