Inside BlackBerry » government

BlackBerry 10 Sneak Peeks at the Canadian Embassy Inauguration Event in Washington, D.C.

Luke Reimer — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:27:35 +0000

Earlier this week we trekked down to Washington, D.C. where BlackBerry was the technology partner at a Canadian Embassy inauguration event. Government leaders, military officers, and Capitol Hill personnel were in attendance and eager to get hands-on with BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha devices.

Reactions to the QNX-based tablet and upcoming smartphone were solidly positive, and it was a real pleasure to see individuals discovering features, functionality, and gesture-based interaction that they hadn’t before experienced. The ability to peek into BlackBerry Hub, the overall flow of BlackBerry 10, and the separation between work and personal data with BlackBerry Balance were clear differentiators for the attendees. Check out the video below to see what a few of them had to say:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Interview with Michael K. Brown on the BlackBerry PlayBook FIPS Certification (VIDEO)

Roger B. — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:21:50 +0000

(Originally posted on the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog)

(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

While the BlackBerry® platform is already synonymous in many circles with security, it’s important to our customers that the BlackBerry solution is not only functionally secure, but is recognized and certified as such. Our ongoing commitment to security was recently recognized as the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet from Research In Motion® (RIM®) became the first (and only) tablet device to achieve Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 security certification.

Beyond being a mandatory requirement for US government purchases and use, FIPS certification recognizes the BlackBerry platform’s ongoing commitment to security. This unwavering approach to product development is designed to enable our customers to focus on solving real business issues – navigating uncharted waters and moving their organizations forwards – instead of wasting time constantly trying to ‘batten down the hatches’ security-wise.

I was eager to congratulate my colleague Michael K. Brown, Director of Security Product Management at RIM, and was able to steal a few minutes of his time to chat further about what the FIPS certification of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet means for our customers.

BlackBerry PlayBook First Tablet Certified for US Federal Government

Wes M — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 21:26:40 +0000

(Originally posted on the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog)

We have very significant news to share with our government customers – today the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet officially received FIPS 140-2 certification, the first tablet to ever have received this certification. With FIPS 140-2 certification, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet can now be used by the U.S. federal government with confidence, knowing that it meets their policy requirements for securing and protecting sensitive data.

This absolutely underscores the commitment by Research In Motion® (RIM®) to building products that meet stringent security requirements of the US Federal Government.

There are a wide variety of smartphone and tablet products available on the market today, many of which don’t meet the highest level of security standards that government agencies demand. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphones are clear exceptions.

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is a natural extension to the hundreds of thousands of BlackBerry® smartphones that are used in the Federal Government today. With the BlackBerry® Bridge™ application, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet can be paired with a BlackBerry smartphone to provide secure access to information on the larger screen while keeping the data stored safely on the BlackBerry smartphone. Secure network communication is also extended to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in this manner, designed to allow the government to be assured that they can securely access applications and other critical data.

I’m pretty excited about the opportunities that the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet presents for government agencies. Pilot projects to use the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet are already underway across the government and the use case scenarios are impressive. Give me a shout in the comments if you would like to discuss how the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet would fit into your agency or department.