No BlackBerry 10 for Southern Health until platform proves itself

'More demand for Android and Apple' says security manager

Southern Health has no plans to accommodate BlackBerry 10 devices in its new security rollout, despite integrating a secure BYOD service for Android and Apple smartphones and tablets.

The new security infrastructure, provided by Trustwave and comprising security solutions from McAfee and Good Technology, is being rolled out after a development period that began in May 2012.

Pulling together five different NHS data service providers across two health authorities in Hampshire, Southern hopes to avoid brushes with the ICO such as that experienced by neighbouring Bournemouth and Poole in 2012 after it passed on patient data to another NHS department without permission of the individuals.

While Apple and iOS devices are supported, Southern Health is reluctant to include any kind of BlackBerry 10 support with the service.

"BlackBerry 10 will be a quite a bit further out at the moment," said Anthony Guethert, head of IT architecture and design authority at Southern Health.

"We really wanted to see how BlackBerry do with version 10 in the marketplace first. I understand the mobile device management capability of BB10 looks good, but we haven't assessed the demand for BB10 devices in our organisation yet. We've had more demand from people wanting to use their own Android or Apple devices rather than BlackBerry 10 devices at the moment."

The lack of demand for BlackBerry 10 support from users is hardly surprising given that BlackBerry has only shifted 2.7 million Z10 and Q10 handsets since their launch in early 2013.