BlackBerry is reportedly planning to move the BBM server to Indonesia following a partnership that was struck with media group PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek) in June, according to The Jakarta Post. The move does not come as a surprise, as Indonesia is among the very few countries where the Canadian firm is still enjoying popularity among retail customers.
BBM license now 100% owned by Indonesia
Matthew Talbot, chief executive of BBM, said that the Canadian firm is planning to move its server in Canada to Indonesia, and the process is expected to be completed in 2017, says The Jakarta Post, citing dailysocial.id. The process is still ongoing, but Talbot expects the infrastructure in Indonesia to be prepared to support it. He expects this move to provide a much better experience for users in Indonesia, enabling them to access the BBM service at a faster speed.
“The experience [factor] is very important,” said Talbot. “We don’t want to access the data through transatlantic cable. We would like to give [a] better messaging experience.”
Talbot said that Indonesia is the “owner” of BBM now following a long-term cooperation between Emtek and BBM.
“The [BBM] license is 100 percent owned by Indonesia; why? Because BBM currently has been separated as enterprise and consumer services,” the executive clarified.
BBM, in a bid to be an all-in-one platform, has launched various services in Indonesia, including BBM Travel, BBM Voucher, and BBM Shopping in collaboration with e-commerce firm Bukalapak.
BlackBerry boosts its security offering
BlackBerry also recently disclosed an upgraded mobile security offering known as BlackBerry Secure. This new offering combines the company’s various security products into a single, integrated suite. The move should enable the Canadian firm to provide end-to-end security solutions to governments and businesses that want to protect their computer systems and mobile devices.
By integrating its multi-platform mobile device management software BlackBerry UEM (originally called BES12) with its various other products, the Canadian firm is simplifying the security offering with BlackBerry Secure, according to the Trefis Team. The system will include Good Dynamics (now BlackBerry Dynamics), AtHoc and Watchdox (a secure online document-sharing service), among others.
According to the Canadian firm, the different tools will be packaged more tightly from an integration and deployment standpoint. In addition, there will be improvements relating to cross-platform and collaboration support as well.
On Monday, BlackBerry shares closed down 0.58%. Year to date, the stock is down more than 16%, while in the last six months, it is up almost 11%.
