John Chen - CEO, BlackBerry
BlackBerry has signed up more than 140 new partners during the last quarter, as the vendor continues to enhance channel capabilities.
Of the new additions - representing both local, regional and global players - key areas of expertise include cloud computing, data security and applications as opposed to traditional mobile devices.
Unveiled during the vendor’s Security Summit in London, the BlackBerry ecosystem also boasts an increased independent software vendor (ISV) base of more than 25 per cent, backed up by a global network of value-added integrators.
Key ISV partners include Blue Cedar, Check Point Software Technologies and Micro Focus, alongside OpsGenie, Symantec and Tableau Software.
Such focus on indirect operations is designed to drive wider adoption of BlackBerry Spark, billed as an enterprise of things (EoT) platform housing increased security offerings.
“As companies race to lead in the EoT, the winners will be those that can interoperate with the widest array of partners and provide end to end secure solutions,” said Mark Wilson, CMO of BlackBerry.
“As more partners choose to work with BlackBerry, our global ecosystem grows to offer our customers cutting-edge solutions to complex business problems.”
Specifically, the new BlackBerry Spark EoT platform offers “snap-in” hooks to add any of the leading public and private cloud and other computing services, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) now on-boarded as a partner.
“Enterprises already look to AWS to help them unlock value from data gathered by IoT devices,” said Dirk Didascalou, vice president of IoT at AWS. “With BlackBerry Spark running on AWS IoT, they now have the ability to connect all aspects of their business to new and existing workflows.
“It enables our mutual customers to quickly integrate any ‘thing’, from a consumer device, to a simple sensor, to complex industrial equipment, while applying the appropriate enterprise policies protecting their data, brand, and people.”
Partner program
To further trigger channel growth, the vendor has also unveiled “numerous enhancements” to the BlackBerry Enterprise Partner Program, including the new Shield Advisor, crisis communications, managed hosted services and workspaces specialisations.
German headquartered, ISEC7 Group was one of the partners which recently joined the program. In 2015, ISEC7 set up its Australian operation through the acquisition of Si Partners.
According to Marco Gocht - CEO of ISEC7 Group - the provider can now offer BlackBerry Shield Advisory Services in North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific to help customers identify security risks in their IT environments.
“The BlackBerry Shield Program is the right tool for ISEC7 to approach customers with an initial conversation and security analysis to start discussions about risk awareness,” Gocht said.
“BlackBerry helped us to launch our new Cyber Security Service for mobile IT, which ISEC7 started earlier this year extending our portfolio, offering an entire new revenue stream.”
