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A recent paper from Context Information Security has predicted that the BlackBerry PlayBook will be the best tablet for a bring your own device (BYOD) strategy.

This report would certainly be good news for Research in Motion, and potentially put BlackBerry back in the enterprise fast lane, after the ubiquity of BlackBerry devices as enterprise smartphones diminished with the rise of iOS and Android.

The paper, entitled ‘Tablets in the Enterprise’, discusses the various advantages and disadvantages of three selected devices: the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the iPad and the aforementioned PlayBook.

The report author, Jonathan Roach, noted that the Galaxy Tab was chosen for analysis because of its consumer popularity and because it “is also a good representative of Android-based devices”.

However it was bad news after that, with the report finding the Galaxy Tab suffered from “serious security failings that make it difficult to recommend as a tool for enterprise use”, noting that a lack of enterprise-level management tools meant it was difficult to manage a high number of the devices effectively.

“The PlayBook was the only device with a workable solution to the Bring Your Own Device dilemma, in the shape of an architecture that provides very good separation between personal and work data,” the report states.

In its executive summary on enterprise level security, Context found a wide difference in security levels for each of the tablets analysed.

The iPad, for what was “predominantly a domestic consumer device”, had what the report described as a good level of security; however the proliferation of jailbreaks and the ease with which weak passwords can be hacked were negatives.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab, in contrast, got a definite ‘could do better’ rating from the report, with an unlocked bootloader and default disabled disk encryption leading the report to summarise: “Samsung still has some distance to cover in its security thinking before it can challenge the likes of Apple and RIM”.

Context found the PlayBook to have the best security solution, being “far more advanced in its level of readiness for the BYOD era than either of the two other tablets,” although noting that the tablet does not encrypt personal data.

Are tablets the way forward?

But are tablets the way forward for enterprise mobility? According to John Hanay of Partnerpedia back in August, tablet computing is the obvious choice, however he linked it to the ‘death of BYOD’.

“There is no doubt that tablet computing is well suited for content consumption with lightweight content creation,” said Hanay.

“It would be relatively easy for businesses to issues tablets to employees given the total cost of ownership difference between a tablet and a laptop.

“And herein lies the death of BYOD: all businesses need to do is to adopt tablets as an accepted computing platform for their employees, and shift BYOD to company issued equipment,” he added.

But do you agree? Do you think that this is good news for RIM, or is it too early to say whether tablets can find a home in the enterprise space?