Blackberry, through its most recent release of BES 10, its latest version of its on-premise enterprise smartphone management server, is bringing secure workspace capabilities to iOS and Android smartphones.

One of the initial pillars of BES 10 when announced was that of a multi-platform MDM. Essentially, it has the ability to manage Blackberries as well as other popular smartphone platforms including iOS and Android. This was a significant step for Blackberry that has only helped curb the stream of BES removals. In fact, while Blackberry has seen the decay of its customer base accelerate to under 79 million users, BES removals are nowhere close to that rate of decline. While upgrades to BES10 continue to plod along, Blackberry is clearing playing to the desires and fears of IT to keep its BES base more stable than its handhelds have been.

Blackberry Balance, which brings a secure container for work data and applications to BB10 devices through a dual-persona paradigm, has been a growing interest in IT managers that are struggling with the wave of devices coming in through BYOD. Blackberry’s push towards a cross platform container only adds to the growing number of services designed to help support the mix use of mobile devices.

AT&T Toggle: Based on OpenPeak Inc.’s device management platform, Toggle divides work from personal data on Android and iOS devices.

Red Bend Software: Offers its True Solution for BYOD, using a Type 1 hypervisior for a virtual machine architecture that separate corporate and personal workspaces on iOS and Android. Red Bend recently announced a partnership with Samsung to offer enterprise trials of dual persona Galaxy S IIIs.

Fixmo SafeZone: Is a multi-platform, dual persona solution designed to the security requirements of government agencies. It powers a number of commercial device management solutions and partners with Cellrox to extend that company's thin virtualization technology developed for Android to iOS devices.

VMware Horizon Mobile: Creates a dual persona environment, but on Android only.

Samsung Knox: Available only on Samsung’s own Android-based devices, Knox creates a dual persona on Samsung’s future devices. It is not possible to install Knox on existing Samsung Android devices.

Early Further Details on Blackberry latest announcement:

• The future update to BES 10 will extend secure workspace capabilities for iOS and Android for data-at-rest as well as data-in-transit.
• The update provides secure client applications for email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, browsing and documents edited on the mobile device.
• Additional applications, including line-of-business applications, can be added to the secured workspace

Links to relevant additional research:   

 "Samsung making Android SAFE for Enterprises with Knox?” http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=reportabstractviewer&a0=8255

 “Research no Longer In Motion as BlackBerry Jams on”  http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=reportabstractviewer&a0=8164

“BYOD Realities”  http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=reportabstractviewer&a0=7853

With the growth in BYOD, large corporate tablet deployments have been limited outside the education sector, but American Airlines represents one of the larger corporate deployments with an installed base of 33,000 units. Recently the airline snubbed Apple (after initially taking 10,000 iPads), by opting to order 17,000 Galaxy Tabs in addition a large order (also 17,000) Galaxy Note "phablet" devices as highlighted here: http://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-picks-samsung-not-apple-2013-3

The key reasons for opting for the Samsung devices were cited as usability and Samsung's SAFE security features that more easily enabled the devices to be made compliant with AA's infrastructure (we suspect cost per unit and volume discount was also a factor, although that obviously wasn't cited!)

So how secure is Android becoming and is it viable for corporate deployments yet? In our blog entry back in 2010, it was a resounding "no", but since then OEMs and third party MDM vendors from Airwatch and Good to Mobile Iron have made securing Android a priority for their MDM offerings. Moreover, the NSA has developed a version of Android called SE Android (Security Enhanced) that has resolved a number of the issues around the on-device OS itself and has been adopted by Samsung for Knox.

Samsung has done an admirable job on security with the addition of Knox to its SAFE program which adds:

1. A Fully Secure Boot Chain and platform security through the use of SE Android (Security Enhanced Linux for Android.
2.  A Container Solution that allows for delineation and management of personal and business profiles and is similar to those offered by Good for Enterprise and other third party vendors.

 Samsung has done a good job of opening the relevant APIs to third party MDM providers (now over 700 APIs available and over 353 IT policies) to enable management and control of various elements that are at risk. The introduction of Knox makes the Operating System much more secure and builds on the incremental improvements to Android security over the recent versions of the platform.

With Samsung seemingly leading the way among OEMs on Android security (Google has seemingly disbanded the 3LM group at Motorola Mobility), questions over standardisation and fragmentation among different versions of Android and different OEMs are inevitably raised. Who is driving security standards for Android? With open source platforms, these challenges will remain. Nevertheless, with the high security standards that have been set in place with SAFE and now Knox mean that Samsung will increasingly be more credible through the corporate direct channel as well as in the hands of the users via BYOD.

A detailed analysis of SAFE and Knox is available in this Strategy Analytics Mobile Workforce Strategies (MWS) report: Is Samsung making Android SAFE for Enterprises with Knox? A detailed mobile platform analysis and assessment of end-to-end architecture and the importance of a layered security approach is available in this Strategy Analytics Mobile Workforce Strategies (MWS) report: TCO & Security of Enterprise Grade Mobility.

Whether to build or buy is the classic dilemma faced by service providers and enterprises looking to deliver a new set of IT resources.  In reality, the question is often about how much to build and how much to buy to achieve the desired combination of functionality and integration.  Many buyers end up pulling together a mix of commercial and open source software and premier branded or low-cost no-name hardware products. 

SoftBank Telecom has chosen what can be considered an easier and faster way to bring to market its business cloud services by buying a turnkey, cloud-in-a-box solution consisting of 8x8's Zerigo cloud platform software running on VCE's Vblock converged cloud infrastructure systems.  These appliance-like systems feature optimized, scalable, and integrated compute, storage and networking technologies from Cisco and EMC (which formed VCE) as well as VMware.  When SoftBank was evaluating platforms to serve as the foundation for the cloud services that it will initially roll out in Japan and later around the globe, the fact that 8x8's software was certified to run on Vblock was compelling.  Why not benefit from the combined expertise and learnings that 8x8 and VCE have already in building cloud solutions?

Service provider 8x8 acquired Zerigo in June 2011 for its software that enables 8x8 to sell services to end users through portals and to provide the orchestration management for easy creation and provisioning of virtual servers.  8x8 purchased a VCE Vblock system to run its cloud services.  Its experience running its software on Vblock systems first led 8x8 to a software licensing deal in January 2013 with data center, cloud and managed service provider CoSentry based in the US midwest.  It has now led to this deal with SoftBank that will include adding virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) capability to the Zerigo software so that SoftBank can offer VDI cloud services to its customers.  Both CoSentry and SoftBank were interested in using Vblock systems to provide the scalable and optimized foundation for hosting cloud servicers for their customers.

Other companies looking to launch or expand business cloud services would benefit from following this example and relying on commercial or open source cloud software running on converged systems from companies like VCE, IBM, HP and Dell.  Only large cloud service providers like Amazon as well as a few smaller providers that have already invested significant time and effort into building and integrating their own cloud infrastructure systems may be the only ones doing so in several years.

In October, IBM and AT&T released an announcement that speaks loudly about the importance of partnerships in the cloud marketplace. Companies pursue partnerships when they recognize that if they work together, they will have a better chance of success than if they act separately. While some companies prefer to go it alone, other partner-friendly companies like IBM and AT&T recognize two things about business clouds. First, no company has all the pieces of the puzzle,. Second, customers prefer to have their suppliers integrate complementary technologies and solutions so they don't have to.

For IBM, cloud computing is still more mindshare than marketshare, expected to contribute less than 2% of its $100B+ global revenue in 2012 (as discussed in "Can IBM's Strategy to Build Customer Private Clouds and IBM and Partner Cloud Services Protect its One Hundred Billion Dollar Business?").  However, the high levels of customer interest in moving IT apps and infrastructure to private and public clouds provide clear indications that IBM's traditional IT hardware, software and services business is at risk over the next 5-10 years unless it becomes a leading provider of a wide range of cloud options from which current and prospective customers will be choosing.  This need to redefine its offerings and how they are delivered and consumed by customers is what is driving the partnership with AT&T whose global network and corporate customer base present opportunities for making IBM cloud services more accessible around the world. 

For AT&T, the partnership adds the ability to resell IBM cloud services alongside its own AT&T cloud services with the added credibility that IBM brings as a trusted supplier and advisor to corporate IT organizations around the world.  IBM and AT&T need each other's help in competing against IaaS cloud market and mind share leader Amazon whose server and storage public and virtual private clouds and private high-bandwidth network connectivity. are directly competitive with IBM and AT&T cloud and VPN offerings.

(Written by Nitesh Patel & Mark Levitt)

The recent focus on maps and location services in the media has centred on Apple’s botched first attempt to offer its own map service riddled with errors.  However, we want to highlight the successes occurring in the background such as Nokia’s continued building towards its ambition to become the leading “where” platform in advertising, automotive and enterprise markets.

Nokia’s Location & Commerce (L&C) unit remains one of the brighter spots for company. Despite being loss making, the L&C unit increased its revenue 25% to €1 B in 2011. Based on its performance during 1H 2012, the division looks set to grow revenue by more than 10% in 2012.  Nokia L&C accounted for just below 3% of Nokia’s total revenue in 2011, against a backdrop of falling sales in its core handset business. With Nokia doubling down its investment in key strategic areas including location, investors need evidence of where and how L&C will grow its revenue in the future. A combination of recent announcements helps shed some light on its L&C business as a growth area:   

Advertising & Marketing: Nokia has partnered with Groupon to deliver local targeted offers via Nokia Maps. We expect Nokia to take a share of the advertising revenue by providing Groupon with access to Nokia Map users on Nokia devices. In order to maximise the advertising revenue potential (for Groupon and Nokia) it makes sense for the Groupon integration to be extended to other WP8 licensees like HTC and Samsung, which we expect to be next steps.

Automotive: At the Pairs auto show Nokia announced extensions of existing relationships with major automotive players BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Pioneer and Garmin. These deals not only enable Nokia to maintain existing licensing revenue with these vendors but to also increase the licensing opportunity through provision of ADAS related content.

Enterprise apps: Just this week, Nokia announced that Oracle had created a link between its Nokia Location Platform (NLP) web service and Oracle’s Fusion Middleware MapViewer. Nokia is currently the only provider of both map data and online mapping services that are integrated with Oracle products. This new integration is intended to reduce the complexity and cost for customers to integrate map content into business applications, and should see Nokia move up the Oracle enterprise value-chain.

With respect to the use of business location information, many enterprise apps contain information about customers or assets such as fleet vehicles that is connected to specific geographic locations.  Having access to up-to-date location information is necessary for business users to do their work. The value of having this information mapped visually within the worker’s business applications can range from moderate to extreme.  In industries such as transportation, energy/mining, facilities management etc. the ease and speed of use and the level of detail that can be provide by visual maps are essential.  In other industries such as finance and healthcare, visual mapping of customer and other sites is useful but not critical.

As access to and use of location information becomes easier and less costly due to advances like the ones listed above, more consumers and business users will benefit from the rich maps that will pop up in lots of new and exciting places. This bodes well for Nokia’s strategy to double its investment in location and commerce to pursue growth across all segments.

A lack of standards in M2M have been repeatedly flagged up a key barrier driving the M2M market forwards. Over the last few years, various Standard Development Organisations (SDOs) have been working on unifying initiatives to help drive the M2M market forward.

On 24th July 2012, a number of global standards bodies (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TIA, TTA, and TTC) signed a definitive agreement to provide a common, efficient and widely available M2M Service Layer, which can be readily embedded within various hardware and software. The goal is to generate cooperative M2M community standards, which will lead to regularly enhanced releases of the M2M Service Layer specifications, known as oneM2M.

The first job of the standards body will be to create two groups along the framework of the timeline shown here:

1.     A Steering Committee to approve scope and direction and work of the Technical Plenary and manages overall process and oversight of issues.

2.    A  Technical Plenary divided into a number of working groups to define the technical scope of various aspects of the M2M service layer e.g. common security framework.

There is clearly a benefit to developing a framework of agreed global standards that will benefit end-users, equipment providers, service providers, standard development organizations and others. 

In theory it will help develop a set of standards that will allow devices to communicate with middleware across multiple geographies and industries, from the smart grid and smart home, to vehicles and healthcare. 

The oneM2M Timeline 

Source: oneM2M

In an ever-flattening world, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have more opportunities to expand and accelerate growth and increase profitability. Just like their large enterprise counterparts, SMBs (with 1 to 250 employees) seek growth and new opportunities through their mobile workforces. The smartphone and tablet market specifically and the mobility market generally in Western Europe is dynamic.

The playing field for smartphones and tablets is crowded and competitive and the SMB segment is a serious user of mobile applications. In this published report, we provide survey findings concerning trends and developments in the SMB segment. It also presents a view of mobile cloud developments created as part of key Mobile Operators? (Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile/TSystems and Telef?nica) core services and their strategies to meet SMB IT needs in Western Europe.

? In Western Europe, there are approximately 139 million workers in the SMB workforce and 40% are mobile

? 65.6% of surveyed SMBs have increased mobile devices spending in the last 12 months, while 33.2% kept spending constant.

? According to Strategy Analytics? 2012 enterprise survey, cloud computing offers SMBs better visibility, scalability and reliability

Other key questions answered in our Western Europe Enterprise Survey -Mobile Operators as a Channel for SMBs include.

What benefits can enterprises derive from wireless solutions?

What does the SMB workforce want and need?

What can organizations do to more effectively manage technology rollout?

Clients can access the full presentation report here. or contact the report author Gina Luk gluk@strategyanalytics.com

Verizon’s planned acquisition of major telematics provider Hughes Telematics is indicative of the continued shift in the M2M value chain as providers look to increase their capabilities to deliver value added services. Typically, carriers prefer to partner in vertical M2M segments rather than acquiring system integrators or value-added resellers. However, where there is a major opportunity in a particular segment, Tier 1 carriers will acquire additional expertise, IP and consequently customers to build on their connectivity and wholesale M2M services. Many Tier 1 carriers also have enterprise managed services capabilities and adding value added service providers in a specific segment can get them closer to offering an end-to-end solution.

In January, Verizon acquired the remaining 50% of nPhase, its joint venture for the M2M business it formed with Qualcomm in 2009/ nPhase provisioning and back-end M2M systems combined with Verizon's sales force and distribution channel was envisaged as making it easier and faster for companies to get their M2M devices running on Verizon's network.

With the acquisition of Hughes, Verizon gains access to OEM telematics, as well as fully fledged M2M fleet and mHealth solutions through two Hughes subsidiaries:

1) Networkfleet, Inc. offers remote vehicle diagnostics, GPS tracking and emissions monitoring system for wireless fleet vehicle management

2) Lifecomm offers mobile personal emergency response services through wearable lightweight device with one-touch access to emergency assistance.

Verizon is stating its firm intention to compete aggressively in the M2M market and this will reinforce Verizon’s leadership position in the North American telematics market. Nevertheless, the M2M landscape will remain very competitive. AT&T remains very strong and Sprint has carved out a market in smart metering and utilities.

What is certain is that 2012 will continue to be an exciting year in the M2M market with more mergers and acquisitions to come!

Today's news that Verizon has purchased Hughes Telematics business for a reported $612M is just the latest example of consolidation in the M2M market as noted by our M2M service.

In our February 2012 insight we predicted that ?2012 will represent a year of major change, as consolidation among various players in the M2M value chain continues and mobile operators look to move up the value chain through creation or extension of M2M service platforms. Fragmentation issues will be more readily addressed in 2012 but there is still a long way to go.

The opportunity in M2M is huge. How huge, well somewhere between our conservative 5B+ connections and more bullish 50B from other sources out there.

We have already seen significant consolidation with operators like Deutsche Telekom looking to expand and enhance their position for the next big thing.. the Internet of Things. Now Verizon for a modest sum is beefing up its enterprise solutions assets. Several other examples include: AT&T extending its position in M2M application development with a U.S. reseller agreement with Axeda Corporation, an exclusive among major U.S. mobile carriers. The AT&T M2M Application Platform Powered by Axeda is designed to streamline the development of M2M applications to enable more rapid deployments at lower cost. Verizon acquiring the remaining 50% of nPhase, its joint venture for the M2M business it formed with Qualcomm in 2009 nPhase provisioning and back-end M2M systems combined with Verizon's sales force and distribution channel was envisaged as making it easier and faster for companies to get their M2M devices running on Verizon's network.

2012 will be a transition year that sees large SIs start to look more seriously at very large projects in the M2M market.

Significant consolidation has already happened among module makers and the next phase of market development is likely to be more consolidation but also expanded partnerships.

Strategy Analytics believes that carriers are well placed to offer developer toolkits and also be a forum for developers to share information and knowledge, as well as potentially creating opportunities to aggregate and showcase developer applications.

Client Reading

On April 10, 2012, HP announced a comprehensive business cloud strategy called the HP Converged Cloud. Building on its existing portfolio of traditional, managed, and private cloud products and services for corporate IT organizations, HP is adding its first public cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings. This business cloud computing strategy is well suited for HP because it elevates rather than disrupts existing corporate IT models for customers and HP. It responds to rising customer interest in cloud computing while remaining focused on HP’s core strengths of IT managed services and premium hardware systems based on open industry standards.

HP’s most recent financials reveal just how fundamental IT services and enterprise servers, storage and networking hardware are to its business (HP Q1 2012 Net Revenues, $30.7B total):

Source:  HP, 2012

With a quarterly run rate of $9B in net revenue and $0.9B in earnings from outsourcing, technology and consulting services fees, HP has the expertise, staffing, business processes and credibility to build and operate world class cloud data centers for its customers.  With a quarterly run rate of $5B in net revenue and $0.6B in earnings from enterprise storage, server and networking systems sales, HP is heavily dependent on business and technology cycles that drive customers to replace systems on a regular basis.  HP benefits from cloud adoption both when its customers buy systems for private or hybrid cloud environments and when they buy public cloud services delivered from HP or HP service provider customer data centers filled with HP systems.

HP’s Converged Cloud strategy aligns well with what organizations are looking to get from cloud computing and cloud providers.  According to our Q1 2012 Enterprise IT seven-country survey, the most important factor when selecting cloud services and providers is the ease of managing the solution.  Since the easiest type of management is relying on a trusted 3rd party to be responsible for management, HP will benefit from having a top management services practice that can itself exploit the HP Converged Cloud Architecture to manage public, private and hybrid cloud data centers for customers.

In announcing the HP Cloud Services Ecosystem partner program as part of the HP Converged Cloud, HP is asserting its position as a leader in the multi-player cloud ecosystem.  This signals to HP’s current and future partners that HP is committed to a collaborative approach for pursuing cloud opportunities and responding to customer needs. HP describes this program as a step on the path toward an HP Cloud Services Marketplace that will offer customers the experience of purchasing HP and partner cloud services using one account and billing statement. HP’s new partner ecosystem is already enabling HP to elevate its portfolio far beyond its traditional managed Microsoft and SAP services.  Launching this marketplace in the next year could prove to be the most important element of HP’s cloud vision in the long term. 

For more analysis, see our Extended Enterprise Software Strategies Insight, HP Converged Cloud Manages Customer Needs and Its Own Strengths in the Cloud.

Post or send your comments to mlevitt@strategyanalytics.com