[jrmiller200]

According to some discussions I had with Blackberry yesterday they are going to have a new option for a Balance configuration. End of the day it means we will be able to log things like BBM, Text, SMS etc while having a Balance configuration which currently is not technically possible unless you go to a work only profile. The way I understand they will accomplish this is to start out with an EMM enabled device (Work only) and then convert it to Balance via a BES policy.

This means they will have done all the iterations possible
1) Personal only
2) Personal converted to Balance (typical BYOD)
3) Work only (ultra lock down mode)
4) Work only converted to Balance

The reason logging will work is the BlackberryID which needs to be associated with BBM will start off in the work profile and therefore be within the space of the enterprise partition which will can be logged.

I was told 10.2 would be available in November and that the device OS updates typically preceed that by a month. The setting or feature to do this will however NOT require the users to update their device to 10.2.. just the BES server

So if "work only" is too locked down for your users it might be worth keeping an eye on. There are a number of downsides to going completely locked down uncluding loss of Blackberry World and putting apps onto the device becomes an exercise of white listing apps to the corporate blackberry world - work. We have also seen that you can only white list apps through the BES policy if the app is a native blackberry app.

So if you are a Blackberry shop looking for some of the features previously available on BES5 in a Balance configuration this might be the thing to watch for.

A warning though.. the not so good news is that if you want to run in this new way it looks like they will at least out of the gate going to attempt to charge extra for it possibly making it not as palatable. Who knows things could change though considering it hasn't come out yet

[Supa_Fly1]

Yet ... BBM doesn't exist in the work profile; unless this changes in BES10.2 10.1 has the API available but not BBM existing in the work profile.

[jrmiller200]

Yea that's what I am saying 10.2 they are changing things around a bit. More options basically. BBID and BBM are too tightly knit but I was wondering if they migh allow a second BBID to exist in the work profile and it sounds like initially they are not doing that. Just changing the order of how you split things so that BBM will actually be in the work profile. For BYOD to work though they must continue to offer the exisiting Balance config though. It would just be another way to set things up going with this new way. Probably best for corporately owned devices.

[smoothrunnings]

I don't thinking this is a good idea as making a big change like then results in disaster. Blackberry has to take smaller steps in the refining of Balance, sure they can still achieve the same results but not by doing it all at once. I figure that a lot of the BES Admins will welcome the change but hate it at the same time as they have spent countless of hours and months getting their Balanced devices working to the way they want, to roll out a major change would require them to go back the drawing board.

[jrmiller200]

Just to close the loop. It?s called Regulated Balance. Works great. Best of all world's in my opinion.

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