BlackBerry entered the Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) market yesterday with the introduction of the BBM Enterprise SDK (software development kit) that will enable developers to integrate secure messaging, voice and video capabilities into applications and services.
As instant messaging becomes a primary means of communication in the enterprise, current market offerings do not provide the same level of security and encryption for which BlackBerry is indisputably famous for.
With more than 80 security certifications and approvals to date – more than any other mobile vendor – BBM Enterprise SDK leverages this expertise to provide the highest-level of security for messages, voice, and video for iOS and Android.
However, BlackBerry entering the CPaaS market is absolutely huge and much more than providing an sdk with a bunch of api’s for developers. This is BlackBerry opening up their Communications Platform, a secure, hosted cloud service with a level of Enterprise-Grade Security with BlackBerry’s renowned NOC architecture.
What is CPaaS?
CPaaS is a communications software solution that acts as a foundation upon which developers can integrate a variety of applications. Typical communication methods like voice and video calling can be embedded into other systems by way of APIs that connect with the CPaaS platform. APIs allow businesses to expand their offerings without the need of additional hardware or software. This flexibility lets companies arrange their communications in a way that best fits their business processes.
Enterprises and ISV’s designing Mobile Apps are increasingly moving towards making MultiChannel communications, an integral part of the Mobile Apps that help consumers interact with the Enterprise. CPaaS makes it so much easier for App developers to integrate these capabilities into their Apps. Uber is a good demonstration of this – an incredibly high volume business relying primarily on Twilio for its communications needs through its mobile App.
However, Twilo – as Marty Beard, Chief Operating Officer, BlackBerry points out – relies on a third party:
“Text messaging – which Twilio is best-known for – is a highly insecure communications medium, both vulnerable to interception and well-suited for exploiting bugs and delivering malware. And though it’s true Twilio developers can deploy end-to-end message encryption, it is through a partnership with a third party, Virgil Security. This means that to bake secure messaging into their apps, developers would need to work with Virgil’s API along with Twilio’s. Integration of voice and video calls also require the use of separate APIs (which can get quite costly).”
Authentication is the other area where businesses are looking to take advantage of CPaaS technology. One example might include extra security measures taken by online banking systems. The notification would send customers verification passwords that would need to be re-entered on the website. CPaaS platforms make it easier to implement and manage these systems.
When it comes to cost, CPaaS solutions make it easy to extend, integrate and build custom communications applications without the hassle of buying or managing the software and hardware infrastructure to support them.
Marty Beard said yesterday,
“We are constantly innovating and looking for ways to leverage our legacy and expertise in secure mobility to solve real business problems,”
“We are opening up a new revenue stream for the company with a fully cloud-based communication service that is designed to help developers, ISVs, and enterprises meet the most demanding security and compliance requirements.”
With CPaaS, you’re able to scale carrier communications on a global scale, without having to directly connect to hundreds of carriers worldwide. CPaaS will make it much easier for businesses to communicate internally, and with prospects and customers.
CPaaS will not only change how your employees communicate and collaborate with each other, but will also transform how you engage with customers.
Developers
CPaaS provides developers with the tools they need to create unique and robust app-based customer experiences without having to build all the back-end infrastructures from scratch. This reduces time to market, removing some of the lengthy QA and deployment processes.
CPaaS developers are already building the next wave of contextual communications that enable businesses to reach customers and facilitate collaboration between employees. An integrated solution gives every employee the power to perform their work while staying plugged in and responsive to customers. Workflows also become more personalized, and transitioning between tasks is a seamless process.
With CPaaS, developers embed cloud-based communication functions into mobile, web-based business and desktop applications through APIs, which govern how an application talks to another one. This task wasn’t always easy for developers, or cost-effective.
Benefits of using BBM Enterprise SDK include:
- Enterprise-Grade Security with BlackBerry’s renowned NOC architecture: BlackBerry’s renowned NOC was built with security in mind and is designed to meet the most demanding enterprise needs. It is globally accessible and provides built-in redundancies to ensure optimal performance, flexibility, QoS and availability for products being built for mass scale.
- Faster Time to Market: By leveraging BlackBerry’s comprehensive, secure communications framework for mobile applications and services, developers can focus more on what matters most versus worrying about the complexities of developing secure messaging capabilities and an IT infrastructure.
- Greater Scalability: Developers can help guard against unforeseen spikes in usage that may affect service availability through a secure, hosted cloud, all without having to deploy a complex and costly infrastructure.
- Reduced Costs: Enterprises can avoid upfront investments in hardware infrastructure by utilizing BBM Enterprise’s fully cloud-based model, as well as control operational costs with an affordable subscription-based per-user licensing model.
When it comes to the BBM Enterprise SDK, it’s not just about voice and video and notifications etc, BlackBerry’s CPaaS offering will also offer secure file sharing and collaboration bringing the ability to securely share files, text, contact cards, media, data, and location.
BlackBerry are synonymous with security and this is extended to the sdk. Developers who deploy the BBM Enterprise SDK will be asked to generate their own encryption keys, meaning BlackBerry will not have the ability to turn over to law enforcement, or any other requesting bodies, any messages sent through this system, even if compelled by a court order.
There will initially be two tiers of the service available – one for messaging only, and another that includes encrypted voice and video.
Of course it doesn’t stop there. With the forthcoming BlackBerry Analytics SDK, developers will be able to integrate rich app analytics into their apps. The BlackBerry Analytics SDK will collect a broad set of metrics around app usage which will then by available through the BlackBerry Analytics console. Developers, IT and even business analysts will be able to interrogate this data to spot trends in app usage, versions, usage times, time of day information, and much more.
With the insights of the forthcoming BlackBerry Analytics capabilities, businesses will be able to optimize their spend, app development resources, app designs and much more.
BlackBerry entering the CPaaS market will be beneficial to enterprise and isv developers, any type and size of business, government bodies, healthcare, financial and loads of other markets. Of course, due to it’s subscription model it will also financially be of benefit to BlackBerry.
