Blackberry this week rolled out what it describes as an “Enterprise of Things” platform – a highly secure (“military grade”) flexible architecture dubbed Blackberry Spark that is intended to securely “snap in” IoT solutions from a range of enterprise partners.
The new tool will allow enterprises to manage smart “things” regardless of operating system (i.e., Android, iOS, Linux, QNX and Windows) via a single pane of glass, integrating platform services such as Android Things, AWS, Azure, and Watson.
The move represents a push by the company to position itself as the secure backbone of the emerging IoT landscape amid an ever-more connected world, in which information technology and operational technology are increasingly merging.
Blackberry Spark will enable OEMs to “confidently deliver complex things, autonomous vehicles and industrial equipment which must have the highest levels of security and safety-certification, as well as consumer-friendly interfaces to complex processes and artificial intelligence (AI), such as voice-activated speakers with privacy protection designed in at the start”, the company said.
Services Built on Blackberry Spark
Services Built on Blackberry SparkThose that have signed on include AWS, Baidu, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Samsung, with Blackberry describing Spark as “designed and built for ultra-secure hyperconnectivity from the kernel to the edge.”
The company unveiled a range of services it is providing alongside the platform, including a manufacturing service for IoT device OEMs – designed to secure the connected supply chain; Blackberry UEM (unified endpoint management) notifications that allow IT administrators to manage compliance and security and the ability to create digital identities for continuous, contextual authentication.
See also: BYTON a Blackberry in an Electric Car
““The rapidly expanding IoT universe contains within it a nasty surprise, every connected device is a potential access point for an attacker wanting to penetrate the network to do damage or steal personal data,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst, Enderle Group, said.
He added: “BlackBerry is uniquely suited to deal with this problem given their extreme focus on securing connected devices. Their Spark platform, designed to secure and manage IoT infrastructure, stands out because of this focus and their demonstrated ability to manage connected devices at enterprise and government scale.”
The company offered both healthcare and transport examples of Blackberry Spark use.
“In transportation, BlackBerry Spark allows connected vehicles to communicate in real-time with other vehicles and critical infrastructure because the data transferred inside and outside the vehicle is encrypted and certified by BlackBerry Spark as genuine. For example, a salt truck could be deployed automatically to address black ice after receiving a notification from a connected vehicle,” the company said.
BlackBerry Spark includes FIPS-validated, app-level, AES 256-bit encryption and is the only EoT platform provider to achieve Common Criteria EAL4+ for both iOS and Android, providing the highest level of security in the market, it noted.
