Comments on: RIM to Offer Free Version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server

By: Brian Rosenfelt

Brian Rosenfelt — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:42:00 +0000

This is certainly good news; however, our past experience with installing and support BES has been painful. Especially the clients that only have 2 or 3 users, its been tough to justify installing and support BES (just another piece of software/technology to support and troubleshoot). We’ve had tremendous success using Astrasync (www.astrasync.com) which installs directly on the Blackberry devices and uses ActiveSync to sync contacts, calendar and email (also has some remote wipe features, etc).

Assuming the newest version of BES Express works well and is easy to install, I could see us moving that direction.

By: Mike Gustavson

Mike Gustavson — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:28:25 +0000

To be honest – I feel like some of the commenters here aren’t really aware of how BES works, and the differences between a BES solution and ActiveSync. To say that ActiveSync on an iPhone, and a BES solution are at feature parity shows a complete disregard for what the actual ‘features’ of BES are… Security, reliability, and bandwidth control – as well as administration – can’t even come close to being at ‘parity’ on any solution to what they are on BES.

It’s good to hear there will be a 5.0 solution for the SMB market – the 4.1 solution was of course not Server 08 compatible, and until now, they’ve only had a ‘stopgap’ solution – you could buy 4.1, and buy Elite support for it, and get a free full BES 5.0 license. However, TCO on that, including support, reached ~$2000 which is unattainable for many businesses.

By: Kurt Kwart

Kurt Kwart — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:49:49 +0000

Hopefully it will support SBS 2008… what a joke…

Kurt Kwart
http://www.thegroundswell.com

By: Edward Stringfellow

Edward Stringfellow — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:44:50 +0000

The central issue here is that an iPhone or any ActiveSync capable device has, at this point reached feature parity with a BES-enabled phone. When ActiveSync/Exchange was buggy it made lots of sense to pay for a better solution. Not so anymore.

Also all the mobile carriers charge for the BES service to work and many users find that BIS (The email-only BB sync) service usually offered for free is not as useful. Also a huge pain for us service providers to provision!
So how am I going to justify paying for the BES license on my server AND higher mobile bill? Good thinking RIM, let’s give them a break on that first part.

Now as a client focused organization I have to go around and replace the hundreds of seats of BES we currently charge for monthly (as a BB partner) to the free version. Clients will love it and we will either save them the $10/month or put the money to better use in other areas.

Edward Stringfellow
http://www.stringfellow.com

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:58:10 +0000

Andy: I used to think really highly of Good. But when I abandoned my Treo in 2006, I abandoned Good as well. I couldn’t stand all the Treo device freezes and lockups at the time.
-jp

By: Andy Myers

Andy Myers — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:54:17 +0000

As in good.com I mean…

By: Andy Myers

Andy Myers — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:53:18 +0000

I really don’t see how they have held out so long. I remember a free version for 10 users or less that was short lived when Exchange SP2 and direct push was released.

Does anybody out there use Good Technology still?

Andy Myers
Fractional CIO, Consultant
http://www.andymyers.net

By: cpen

cpen — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:00:35 +0000

About time. BES didn’t fit into the SMB space with software costs and server requirements. Blackberry Professional was a good SMB solution but wasn’t compatible with Server 08. This new solution took way too much time IMO. We’ve been pointing customers to WM, IPhone, and Droids because of the simple/inexpensive integration into Exchange. RIM will conitnue to lose market share in the SMB space.

By: jkilgore

jkilgore — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:43:17 +0000

It surely took them long enough. Thanks RIM. But can we truly confirm that it is totally free? I see it can support up to 75 users – but must you purchase additional licenses above a certain threshold? If this isn’t really free, then RIM has alienated the SMB market again. Why would anyone want to pay extra for a mobile phone to sync email? Windows and iPhone do it for free.

John Kilgore
Computer Service Partners, Inc.
http://www.cspinc.com

By: Randy Simbro

Randy Simbro — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:55:03 +0000

this isn’t really new at all. It looks like RIM has stopped offering Blackberry Professional Server, a similar solution to BES but with some ‘Enterprise’ components stripped at. BPS was offered at a lower price point and made a lot of sense for the SMB market. I personally have it deployed at several of my clients. I no longer find any Blackberry Professional Server products listed on RIM’s site. Blackberry Professional Server Express was also offered free, but limited to a single user account.