Good Technology

Good Technology represented a significant player in the mobile security sector, with a complex history marked by acquisitions and shifts in focus. The company's origins trace back to Visto, founded in 1996, which was initially known as Roampage. Separately, the original Good Technology was founded in 2000, first named SpringThings, and initially sold MP3 players before pivoting to email products for mobile professionals. The two companies, both marketing email access from portable devices, eventually merged in 2009 when Visto acquired Good Technology and adopted its more recognizable name.

The company specialized in providing secure mobility solutions for enterprises and governments, focusing on protecting data on mobile devices. Its client base included organizations with high-security needs, such as 100% of the FORTUNE® 100 commercial banks and aerospace and defense firms. The business operated in the enterprise mobility management (EMM) market, providing software and services to securely manage applications and data on various mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. This was crucial for organizations adopting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, allowing employees to use personal devices for work without compromising corporate data. Revenue was generated through licensing its software and platform solutions to these large organizations.

Good Technology's core offering was the Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform, a comprehensive suite that enabled containerization. This technology created a secure, isolated environment on a mobile device where corporate apps and data could reside, separate from personal information. This approach provided data loss prevention, encryption, and secure communications between applications. The platform also included a software development kit (SDK), allowing over 13,000 developers to build custom, secure business applications. Key products built on this platform included the Good Collaboration Suite and Good for Enterprise (GFE), which achieved a high-level Common Criteria security certification. In 2014, the company expanded its capabilities by acquiring BoxTone, adding mobile device management (MDM) and mobile app performance monitoring to its portfolio. The firm was ultimately acquired by BlackBerry on September 4, 2015, for $425 million, a move that allowed BlackBerry to enhance its cross-platform security offerings and consolidate a major competitor in the EMM space.

Keywords: mobile security, enterprise mobility management, EMM, mobile device management, MDM, containerization, secure mobility, data loss prevention, BYOD security, secure mobile platform, Good Dynamics, secure collaboration, enterprise application security, mobile application management, MAM, BlackBerry acquisition, Visto, mobile data protection, government mobile security, financial services security