IBM Unfolds Mobile Device Management Platform by Purchasing FiberLink
Bring your own device to work, which is better known as BYOD, has been a hot topic of discussion for CIOs and IT managers alike. For many years, companies decided to pass out BlackBerry’s to their workers because they thought that only these types of mobile devices were able to safely display company emails. Times have certainly changed because it made little to no sense for users to have to carry two mobile devices.
IBM has entered the MDM market with their purchase of FiberLink. FiberLink’s top selling product is MaaS360. This product allows administrators to control which apps and what data can be displayed on a user’s phone while giving the administrator complete control over the how, when and why aspects of access of the company’s data.
Recently, IBM bought SoftLayer in order to boost its cloud computing core. When you combine the SoftLayer purchase with the FiberLink acquisition, it becomes increasingly clear that IBM wants to become a force in the business cloud arena. IBM wants to use MaaS360 alongside End Point Manager for deployments all across a company’s network. This includes notebooks, desktops, servers and mobile devices. FiberLink will be included inside of the SoftLayer cloud infrastructure. IBM plans on putting a sales force behind this MaaS360 in efforts to increase product awareness throughout the business community.
Robert LeBlanc, the Senior Vice President for IBM Middleware was quoted as saying, “The acquisition of Fiberlink will enable us to offer these expanded capabilities to our clients, making it simple and quick to unlock the full potential of mobility.”
Both parties were contacted in regards in terms of this deal and each company declined to discuss the specific details or the price of the acquisition. These terms are expected to come to light within the next few weeks.
