BlackBerry grabs 98% of new Pentagon management system

On January 31st, the Pentagon will press the start button for its new management system. The initiative is designed to wean the GI Joes off of tethered workstations, and on to mobile devices. The idea of the $16 million plan is to make sure that up to 300,000 military users don't leak military data or corrupt military networks while mobile.

When the new system goes online at the end of the month, 80,000 BlackBerry units and 1800 iOS and Android phones will be activated. Other devices expected to be used by the Pentagon include the Third and fourth generation Apple iPads, the Apple iPhone 4s and Apple iPhone 5, Samsung's 10.1 inch tablets, the Samsung Galaxy S III and Motorola DROID RAZR handsets. The particular BlackBerry models being purchased by the Pentagon are unknown.

At the end of this month, those using the mobile management system will have access to an app store with 16 apps presently included, encryption keys for the Defense Department and enterprise email. At the end of May, these users will receive an update allowing them to edit Microsoft Office files including Word documents.



source: NextGov, BBNews.pl (translated) via BerryReview