US 10,379,829 B2Granted

System and method for restricting system and application software available for installation on a managed mobile device

AssigneeBlackBerry Limited

InventorsAndrew Christopher Smith, Thomas Owen Parry, Srdan Dikic, Spencer Leavitt George Quin, Christopher Donald MacDonald, Michael William Loosemore, Jason Lee Carter

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Abstract

A method for managing software on a device is provided. The method comprises: receiving, from a third party associated with the device, by a software administrator of an organization different from the third party, release information regarding software versions for the device; creating, by the software administrator, a profile that specifies whether or not at least one of the software versions is allowed on the device; and transmitting the profile, by the software administrator to a server computer associated with the third or other parties, to promote enforcement of the profile for the device.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method for managing software on a device and implemented by an external administrator, the method comprising:

receiving, from a server at a customer site and associated with the device, release information regarding software versions for the device and originating from a software loading service of a software management entity;
creating, using the release information and using user and device data describing characteristics of the device and a user of the device, a profile that specifies whether or not at least one of the software versions is allowed on the device, wherein the user and device data are based on at least one of a model of the device or a service provider associated with the device, and wherein the profile further specifies that a particular one of the software versions is to be installed on the device based on an amount of memory currently available on the device;
and
transmitting profile information to the server to promote enforcement of the profile information for the device, wherein the profile information comprises the profile,
wherein the external administrator is external to a network of the customer site and external to the software management entity.

2 more elements

A server at a customer site, the server comprising:

a memory;
and
a processor coupled to the memory and configured to:
receive, from a software loading service of a software management entity, release information regarding software versions for a device;
cause the memory to store the release information;
transmit the release information to an external administrator;
receive, from the external administrator, profile information to promote enforcement of the profile information for the device, wherein the profile information comprises a profile created using the release information and using user and device data describing characteristics of the device and a user of the device, wherein the user and device data are based on at least one of a model of the device or a service provider associated with the device, wherein the profile specifies whether at least one of the software versions is allowed on the device or is prohibited on the device;
transmit a payload towards the software loading service to cause the software loading service to make a specified software version available for installation on the device or to cause the software loading service to prevent installation of the specified software version on the device, wherein the payload is based on the profile information;
and
when the server receives more than one profile for the device, perform a reconciliation procedure to determine which of the profiles is to be enforced on the device, wherein the server performs the reconciliation procedure based on a ranking that specifies which of the profiles are to take precedence over others,
wherein the external administrator is external to a network of the customer site and external to the software management entity.

8 more elements

A method for managing software on a device and implemented by a server at a customer site, the method comprising:

receiving, from a software loading service of a software management entity, release information regarding software versions for the device;
transmitting the release information to an external administrator;
receiving, from the external administrator, profile information to promote enforcement of the profile information for the device, wherein the profile information comprises a profile created using the release information and using user and device data describing characteristics of the device and a user of the device, wherein the user and device data are based on at least one of a model of the device or a service provider associated with the device, wherein the profile specifies whether at least one of the software versions is allowed on the device or is prohibited on the device;
transmitting a payload towards the software loading service to cause the software loading service to make a specified software version available for installation on the device or to cause the software loading service to prevent installation of the specified software version on the device, wherein the payload is based on the profile information;
and
when the server receives more than one profile for the device, performing a reconciliation procedure to determine which of the profiles is to be enforced on the device, wherein the server performs the reconciliation procedure based on a ranking that specifies which of the profiles are to take precedence over others,
wherein the external administrator is external to a network of the customer site and external to the software management entity.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.