CA has announced CA Mobile Device Management (CA MDM), an enterprise-class solution for managing BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM).

By providing corporate IT organisations with expanded management capabilities and device-user self-service functionality, CA MDM claims to mitigate security and compliance risks associated with these devices-while also reducing total cost of ownership.

CA MDM  claims to leverage BlackBerry Enterprise Server IT policies to deliver over-the-air (OTA) management from a web-based interface, including device lock/unlock and data wipe to prevent access to data on lost or stolen devices.

CA MDM can integrate with other CA solutions, including CA Asset Management, CA Identity Manager and CA Security Command Centre, to help ensure that BlackBerry smartphones are easily incorporated into the broader set of enterprise IT governance best practices.

"As BlackBerry smartphones and other mobile devices play an increasingly central role as a primary end-user computing device-of-choice, IT organisations will have to subject those devices to the same set of policies and controls that are currently applied to desktops and laptops," said Jacob Lamm, executive vice president and general manager at CA. "CA MDM is an optimal solution for fulfilling this essential enterprise IT management requirement."