RIM Separates Work And Personal Info On BlackBerry

As we mentioned earlier, RIM's BlackBerry World 2011 kicked off this week in Orlando, and the two new BlackBerry smartphones aren’t the only news coming from RIM. The company also announced BlackBerry Balance, a new technology that will let you use a single BlackBerry smartphone for both work and personal use without compromising the security of important company data and the privacy of your personal content.

Although many users already use their BlackBerry smartphone for both business and personal use, this practice is not always encouraged or liked by corporate IT administrators. With BlackBerry Balance companies will be able to securely and cost-effectively enable employees to be connected and productive, while also enabling those employees to carry a single phone.

RIM Launches BlackBerry Balance for Work-Life Balance on BlackBerry

Unifies Work and Personal Use of BlackBerry Smartphones without Compromising Company Security or Personal Privacy

Waterloo, ON - Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) is advancing work-life balance on BlackBerry® smartphones with BlackBerry® Balance™ – new technology that makes possible the convenience of using a single BlackBerry smartphone for both work and personal purposes without compromising the security of company content and the privacy of personal content.  RIM is introducing this technology in response to the growing trend by businesses to allow employees to use personal BlackBerry smartphones for work, or company-owned smartphones for personal, and the need by businesses to secure, manage and control confidential company or client information on these devices.

“BlackBerry Balance is a win-win for employers and employees,” said Jim Tobin, senior vice president, software and services at Research In Motion. “It’s a secure and cost-effective way for companies to keep employees connected and productive, while also allowing the flexibility for employees to carry a single phone.”

BlackBerry Balance presents a unified view of work and personal content on a BlackBerry smartphone while keeping the content separate and secure. The division between work and personal content is transparent to the user unless they try to perform actions prohibited by company policy. IT administrators can set policies via BlackBerry® Enterprise Server or BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express. These policy settings can enable the following:

•        Secure access to business information while preventing the information from being copied into, sent from or used by personal applications like Facebook®, Twitter®, Windows Live™ Hotmail, Google Mail™ or Yahoo!® Mail accounts.

•        Business data or files created by business applications cannot be used by personal applications.

•        If a user attempts an action that is prohibited by IT policy, a notification is displayed on the device.

•        If an employee leaves the organization, an administrator can remotely wipe business information from the device while leaving personal information intact.

•        If a device is lost or stolen, an administrator can wipe all information from the device to help ensure that sensitive business information and the user's personal information don’t fall into the wrong hands.

BlackBerry Balance is available only on BlackBerry devices and can be applied to employee- or company-owned smartphones. It is built into BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0.3 and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express 5.0.3 (available this week) for Microsoft® Exchange® or IBM® Lotus® Domino®. It also requires the latest version of BlackBerry® 6 Device Software*.

For more information, visit www.blackberry.com/balance.

*Check with wireless service provider for availability.