RIM has confirmed that its long-standing BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) device management service is to evolve into BlackBerry Mobile Fusion (BMF), which will extend support to rival iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, and Microsoft’s ActiveSync.

“Things in the market have gotten a bit messy and more than a bit challenging for IT administrators, IT specialists, and CIOs,” said Alan Panezic, RIM’s VP of  Enterprise Product Management, in a blog post. “Organisations are under pressure to support a wide variety of devices from multiple manufacturers, as well as multiple form factors, with tablets gaining steam as business tools.”

BMF is described as a unified, multi-platform, mobile device management (MDM) solution. It will support the new PlayBook tablet OS (2.0) and the new BlackBerry 10 devices due to launch later this year.

Panezic noted that BMF will also support the latest MDM capabilities available in iOS and Android, and “is designed to enable administrators to apply corporate policies and configurations to manage and secure these devices” and enabling “the distribution of mobile applications to employees on these platforms.”

He added that BMF “leverages Microsoft ActiveSync as an email and PIM sync protocol while providing enterprises with many of the same advantages that a BlackBerry Enterprise Server does for a BlackBerry smartphone.”

ActiveSync is supported on the PlayBook tablet to allow consumers to connect to popular mail platforms such as Google’s Gmail or Windows Live.