DEVELOPERS BLOG

Mobile Archiving: Who’s Got Your Back? GWAVA does.

FEATURE STORIES / 09.15.14 / bbpng

Can you afford to lose your data?

We’ve established, here on the Inside BlackBerry Dev blog, Enterprise app development presents an opportunity, and BlackBerry has a strong position and focus on enterprise. We reached out to our partners at GWAVA, who’ve had a great experience developing for a specific enterprise need, to share a case study. Read how they built a custom solution, and think about opportunities for how you could do the same.

It’s happened to all of us, and I remember the first time it happened to me. I sat down at my local coffee shop, pulled out the laptop, and fired it up. Nothing. Dead. Apparently hard drives, like everything, have a useful lifespan.

Luckily I’d been online the previous night, and all of my documents, client data, and emails were safely archived. Otherwise, I would have lost days or weeks of work. Frankly, some of that data was irreplaceable.

While you may know how often your work email gets archived at work, can you say the same for your work smartphone? If you bring your own device (BYOD) to the office, there’s a good chance that archiving is not happening. And what does your employer’s mobile policy say about that? Does the responsibility fall to you?

Source: Osterman Research Whitepaper: Using Email, File, Social Media and Mobile Archiving to Grow Your Business http://ostermanresearch.com/whitepapers/download221.htm

Source: Osterman Research Whitepaper: Using Email, File, Social Media and Mobile Archiving to Grow Your Business http://ostermanresearch.com/whitepapers/download221.htm

Recommended and  required

For those who operate in a highly regulated industry, such as finance, healthcare, or government, archiving data is not just an operational best practice – it’s a legal and regulatory requirement.

IT is responsible for keeping massive amounts of data, from multiple sources, for extended periods of time – and must be able to produce that data whenever required, in situations like these:

  • A legal action
  • A freedom-of-information request
  • An internal investigation into fraud

When these happen, saying “the dog ate my smartphone” isn’t going to cut it.

A unified solution

Developing a web of systems to archive all of the data generated by workers can be cumbersome and costly for large organizations. To keep their IT spending under control, companies increasingly see the benefit of a unified system that covers all of their integrated systems.

One such solution is GWAVA, a unified archiving solution for companies that use BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) as their mobile security platform. With GWAVA, companies can back up emails, BBMs, SMS, PIN-to-PIN messages and phone logs to an integrated, searchable database.

We talked to Michael Silverman, Director of Sales for GWAVA Technologies, about how the combination of GWAVA and BlackBerry helps to provide a powerful solution for regulated enterprises.

What does GWAVA do?

MS: GWAVA offers unified archiving solution for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). We allow organizations to capture data from different points, from BBM, from PIN-to-PIN, from SMS, from phone logs, and allow them to centralize all that data in a sync-able database and have it accessible to address certain types of litigation —or compliance requirements — within their industry.

What are some of the regulations that help drive the adoption of the GWAVA solution?

MS: In the U.S., a number of regulations and requirements make archiving mobile communication mandatory: FINRA [the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority], CC [the Federal Reserve’s Regulation CC, Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks], HIPAA [The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act], federal civil procedures that mandate that all government agencies be able to produce information in a timely manner, and FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests. In addition, many state agencies are mandated to produce information from text messages and phone logs pertaining to any kind of FOIA requests, or any kind of e-discovery requests.

What kinds of enterprises need this kind of capability?

MS: Regulated industries, from financial to government to healthcare, are the major vertical markets for the solution on BlackBerry. We can’t name many of these customers in order to protect their privacy, but most are organizations that put security and compliance at the top of their list of priorities.

What’s the advantage of using GWAVA and BlackBerry together?

MS: Nobody else allows organizations to actually archive their data in this way for compliance purposes. It’s a big differentiator for BlackBerry compared to any competitor out there today in the market.  Also, by having a central repository for end users’ mobile data, it allows them to access this for their data for day to day requirements.

What BlackBerry products does GWAVA support?

MS: Today we support BES 5, and we support older versions of the BES too. We also support BES10. We’re working now to support BES12 when it launches and we’re also supporting the eBBM Suite as it rolls out. In fact, we’re the only company out there today that allows organizations to capture BBM and PIN-to-PIN messages. Nobody else out there has the capability to do that. As BBM Protected rolls out to enterprise organizations and regulated industries, we’ll also capture that data.

Does the GWAVA solution work for other devices managed by BES10 or only BlackBerry devices?

MS: Today, many of our customers are strictly BlackBerry, but they are looking to explore iPhone and Android devices. Currently, we enable organizations to capture data on BES-managed Android devices. And, we’re working very closely with BlackBerry to offer that service also for iOS and Windows devices.

Does having GWAVA on a BES impact the end-user experience? Does it slow things down?

MS: The user interface is seamless. Everything’s happening behind the scenes, so there’s no impact on the end user; there’s nothing installed on the mobile device. For the administrator, it’s all web-based so they can access information, on their mobile device, from wherever they are. Just put in key search words, and the system pulls up emails related to that person, their phone number, any text message, any BBM, any PIN-to-PIN, all relevant phone logs. It basically federates the search so you’re getting everything from a single search.

In an age where enterprises need to demonstrate the return on investment for every cost, how do they justify a GWAVA/BlackBerry installation?

MS: It’s like having an insurance policy; in case something does happen you’re able to deal with it very quickly. It’s the same thing with security and compliance. It could be an individual in the organization is leaking out confidential information. A perfect example was the case a few years back in a major financial institution, where an investor was sharing his confidential client list. We were able to capture the data leak and alert the enterprise he worked for.

When you have these kinds of situations, you’re able to deal with them — and to stop them — and that saves an organization a lot of money.

This solution is especially needed for regulated users and EMM regulated users. For those organizations that have Enterprise Mobile Management, or organizations that are regulated,  this solution is a must have. In fact there are laws that outline that need

For standard users this solution is an insurance policy. In case of a situation where they have to use this information, like a wrongful termination dismissal suit, or similar situation, the solution is in place and the information is readily available.

How can companies purchase GWAVA for use on a BES?

MS: We have a license agreement with BlackBerry, so BlackBerry is able to sell our solutions to their enterprise customers. It’s fully supported, end-to-end, by BlackBerry — including technical support.

What does this mean for all the Developers out there? There’s clearly a need for something capable of supporting and backing up multiple systems and the vast data that comes with them. This type of security starts with developers. Right now, GWAVA is a terrific product that is capable of supporting a company’s mobile security needs. This is especially relevant as companies strive for workforce mobilization. If you’ve been thinking about entering this potentially lucrative space, reach out to us for support, we’re here to help you develop your ideas into useful, creative and productive apps that solve everyday problems in the enterprise

 

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