Microsoft, RIM expected to unveil new, free hosted Blackberry service | ZDNet
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Microsoft, RIM expected to unveil new, free hosted Blackberry service
By Mary Jo Foley | March 16, 2011, 7:05am PDT
Microsoft and RIM are set to unveil a new offering, possibly as soon as March 16 — a Hosted Blackberry Enterprise Service for customers using Exchange 2010 Online, Microsoft’s hosted Exchange e-mail service, according to my sources.
Microsoft already offers a Microsoft-hosted Hosted Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES) offering that costs $10 a month per user. Word is that the new Hosted BES offering will be free for existing Hosted BES users.
One person in the know said the existing Hosted BES offering’s end-date is June 30 — the end of the month during which Microsoft is believed to be launching its Office 365 cloud platform, according to what I’ve heard. Office 365 is Microsoft’s replacement for its existing Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and Live@edu platforms.
Once Office 365 moves from its beta status to final, however, there could be a delay in getting the new hosted BES service on the re-engineered platform, one of my contacts said. Microsoft will likely provide some kind of stop-gap solution that requires some on-premises servers until BES can be updated for Office 365, that contact said. I’m not clear if the price of the new hosted BES service will still be zero once Office 365 goes live or not.
I’ve asked Microsoft for comment on the expected new BES deal and its Blackberry-hosting plans once Office 365 launches. I will update this post if and when I receive a response.
“RIM is only mobile OS that doesn’t use (Microsoft) ActiveSync-aware devices and has a separate device management platform - the BES environment,” one of the aforementioned sources said. “Most large enterprise customers run a on premise BES server to get the advanced device management.”
Here’s a description of what the existing hosted BES provides, from a Microsoft blog post dated February 2010:
“The Hosted BlackBerry service from Microsoft Online Services offers the most commonly requested BlackBerry capabilities, including wireless access to e-mail, calendar, tasks and contacts with global address list (GAL) integration, and device management such as device wipe and password reset.”
Update: Looks like this is, indeed, happening. When I downloaded the latest (dated March 15, 2011) version of the Mobility Solutions data sheet for Microsoft Online Services, the new free pricing was already in there. Here’s a snapshot from that document:
(click on the screen shot to enlarge)
Any Hosted Blackberry Enterprise Service users out there? What are you hearing about the new offering and plans around Office 365?
PS I'm moving the thread to News & Rumors
Thank you sir!
This is an interesting development. I constantly worry that letting anyone muck around with RIM's brainchild is a recipe for disaster. I'm curious though, I hope that all this works for the better. But I would definitely like some extra information.
I'm also curious about the CrackBerry Universe thinks of this as well.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
So does this mean that activesync will be on blackberry and blackberry users can access work email without BES?
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
NO,
it means users who use hosted Exchange service with Microsoft can get Free BES with there service and now use Blackberry's instead of only Activesync enabled phones
Ok drussett,
Just a little confused here. I'm not BES savvy so please bare with me here. In my scenario, my company will only allow acces to email through BES, they cut out OWA. Will this ms/bb integration benefit my case in any way? As far as another option from paying $20 a month for BES?
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
this depends completely on if your company uses a hosted Exchange with Microsoft, or if they used Hosted Exchange with other parties, OR if they Host there own exchange.