BlackBerry Limited is now providing dedicated EU instances of its BlackBerry AtHoc service, a networked crisis communication solution.

BlackBerry AtHoc will enable customers to comply with EU data protection regulations and prepare for the upcoming Public Warning directives by localising personal data in additional data centres located in the Netherlands and France, as well as the existing one in the UK.

BlackBerry AtHoc has already been chosen by the German Development Agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) due to its security compliance, native language support, and ease of use.

It empowers organisations to achieve situational awareness and keep their people safe during times of emergency, providing two-way communication across the entire organisation to virtually any device.

“Empowering our customers with the most secure communication platform for increasing resiliency and communicating swiftly is critical in a crisis,” said Adam Enterkin, senior vice president EMEA at BlackBerry.

“It is also vital that we are able to adhere to new and existing EU data residency requirements per the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). With BlackBerry AtHoc’s new EU based data centres we are able to scale our infrastructure to better support our customers’ needs over a secure and reliable network.”

In anticipation of a more connected future, the EU has introduced a new Directive on the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). Under the new Directive, all EU member states must establish a public warning system to protect citizens by 2022.

The system will send alerts to all citizens and visitors’ mobile phones in a specific area in the event of a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or other major contingencies in the area.

BlackBerry AtHoc allows organisations to safely and securely communicate with their workforce and other organisations through any device, from mobile apps to sirens or desktops to building systems such as fire panels. 

BlackBerry AtHoc leverages the power of mobility, hybrid cloud, and the IP network to deliver a unified and secure end-to-end solution capable of real-time collaboration, keeping critical business operations running.