Blackberry Server on the Exchange server

I've been a little slow to see this one, but Blackberry has released a new product this month called Blackberry Enterprise Server Express. This replaces Blackberry professional which was originally designed for smaller offices, but had not been updated to run on 64-bit operating systems.

The biggest changes:

• total freebie, no licensing
• runs right on the Exchange server or SBS server
• runs on 64-bit and supports up to Windows Server 2008

From my perspective this means we can start installing BES right on the SBS box and save our clients a Windows Server license fee and hardware costs. In some cases, it will mean we can retire an old box that was being used just for BES.

While I think of this from the perspective of our smaller clients. It is scalable up to 2000 users on a dedicated box. There are a number of policies and add-ons that don't work with BES Express, but if all you need is the basic e-mail, calendar stuff. This one is a winner and helps compete with ActiveSync on the iPhone which is effectively free.

Learn more at: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/business/server/express