[mathking606]

I was just wondering why BlackBerry has a cloud for their business customers but was not able to set one up for the average consumer such as Icloud. Could anybody tell me why?

[Innovatology]

Because about a year ago they chose to focus on their core strengths, and to partner with experts such as Box for other areas.

[lunaticwithin]

If your referring to Blackberry Business Cloud Services, this is not really a "cloud" service like iCloud. It's just a version of BESx that allows Office365 users to sync their Exchange mailbox fully with their blackberry.

[Thunderbuck]

There's a whole array of services that essentially duplicate iCloud. Box provides cloud file storage. 7digital is kind of cloud-ish for music, letting you download your purchases to multiple devices. There's third-party apps that give access to pretty much every other cloud service. What more you looking for?

[mingus007]

Speaking of which... Been poking around here and there looking to see if BBCS will be (or is) updated to work w/Office365. Any thoughts?

I'm guessing you can just plug it in using ActiveSync (not that I necessarily trust MS to have accommodated this properly, mind you), but there was always something reassuring about having BBCS being the party to decrypt and talk to O365, then receiving and encrypting before shooting back over to the handset. (Else I missed the point of some encryption discussions, in which case, you have my preemptive apology.) Willing to pay a bit more if it means a bit more lockdown.

** And no. I'm not doing/thinking of doing anything illicit or untoward to the general public good. Just want some semblance of privacy. Dinosaur thinking, I know. **

Thank you.

[lunaticwithin]

The new phones work via ActiveSync with Office365 without any issues. I believe Blackberry wont be updating BESx to support the new handsets so BBCS wouldn't be updated to work with them.

[mingus007]

The new phones work via ActiveSync with Office365 without any issues. I believe Blackberry wont be updating BESx to support the new handsets so BBCS wouldn't be updated to work with them.

A bit disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. Thanks, Lunatic! (Feels odd typing that w/o feeling rude.)

If I may follow up on one point: Were my concerns (based on correct/incorrect readings on the matter) regarding encryption valid?

[lunaticwithin]

I can't comment on the encryption, and given some big companies use iPhones etc I don't believe it's a generally big problem unless you are working for a top secret organisation.