Canadian manufacturer RIM has announced the launch of a free cloud-based smartphone management service, called BlackBerry Management Center, which allows users to manage multiple BlackBerry devices without making any new investment in any infrastructure or management software.

Designed especially to target small businesses, BlackBerry Management Center allows an administrator to manage up to 100 BlackBerry smartphones remotely and work in conjunction with the BlackBerry Protect application.

The new service allows users remotely back up, lock down, or even wipe clean data from the BlackBerry smartphones connected to the service. Smartphones receive e-mail via an Internet service provider account or Web mail that is to be managed by the administrator.

Pete Devenyi, senior vice-president of email & management platforms at RIM, said that millions of its users were using BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) e-mail accounts for both personal as well as business e-mail, and the creation of the new service would allow an administrator to manage employees’ BlackBerry smartphones in one place. The protect options are available in BlackBerry Management Console.

Speaking on the topic, Devenyi said, “Previously there was no way to manage these devices as a business entity. It certainly has many of the features that BES has, or at least a sub-set of the features focused on small business.”

Senior analyst Krista Napier, of emerging technology at IDC Canada, said that BlackBerry Management Center should appeal to small businesses.