Ummm, not true. BES has supported 64-bit windows and 64-bit databases for quite a long time.

OK, I'll look into that.

Well, then you & your clients don't know how to administer a BES & blackberries. The devices are extremely solid, and almost never need a factory wipe. Of course, most problems will be resolved by a factory wipe & reactivating, but there is almost always a far easier & faster way to resolve the issue, but it seems you don't know that.

Well. since you are posting AC, I've no problem showing my claws on this response. If you are going to say I don't know what I'm doing, have the courage to state your slashdot ID, at the least.

When something goes wrong with a windows pc, do you wipe your hard disk & reinstall every time? That will resolve the issue, but there is almost always a simpler, easier & faster solution.

Seems to be the one of the most common solutions in "enterprise" situations.

Reactivating a blackberry user on a BES is REALLY HARD! How hard is it? On the BES 4 series, you run the BES console, find the user, right-click on the user, and set the activation password to whatever you like. Then, on the blackberry, go to options, advanced options, enterprise activation, enter your email address, enter the activation password you just set, and click activate. Wasn't that hard?

Not hard for me, but please see my above reply to Growse detailing the realities of what I do and where I live.

Frankly, if your clients can't activate a blackberry by themselves, then maybe they aren't smart enough to use email.

Recent case - end user bought a new blackberry on a whim. No idea what the monkeys at the verizon store did, no idea what the end user did prior to calling me. Had to walk the end user thru inserting the SIM card right side up over the phone. Given the above, first action = factory reset.

Yes, this end user is barely able to use email. Yes, the office manager at my client was concerned about my cost to get him working. So, keeping cost down for my customer = factory reset.

Better? How many other solutions have real push email? None (windows mobile comes close with their fake push). How many other mobile email solutions have remote lock, remote unlock, remote wipe, solid AES encryption, certification by many governments [blackberry.com] and other agencies?. Can you force your users to have a password? Can you force your users to always encrypt the blackberry contents? Does your iphone overwrite freed memory so that the contents can't be read by disassembling the device? Nope.

Do you need to restrict your user from browsing the web? Do you need to centrally track SMS, email & phone calls? All this is easy on the BES.

These do not apply to me or my customers. See my reply to Growse above before you flame me.

As previously mentioned, I should have included details of what I do and what my customers do and need. Bottom line for me and mine is that while BES/blackberry is fine for large deployments and has all sort of features for regulatory compliance, etc. in the SMB space, they are not, IMHO the best option.

Thanks Growse,

I appreciate you considering my side. As mentioned, I really should have mentioned the specifics of what I do and what my clients need. I do understand that BES/blackberry give a ton of stuff that is good for large deployments and enterprise. That's not where I live.

OK, fair enough to yours and all of the above replies. I'm replying to yours as it is the harshest, but no hard feelings.

I should have mentioned that I provide services to small and almost medium-sized businesses and orgs. If I was in an "enterprise" admin role my feelings would be different, and so would the needs and realities my clients face. Picture a law office with 8 users, a business with 20 users, an org with 40 users - that's my space. For this space, licensing and labor cost far more than hardware.

For this market segment, BES is not, IMHO, the way to go. Licensing and maintenance will bleed my customers dry. Exchange is the cheapest "groupware"-ish solution I can provide for them. For their mobile devices, the same logic applies - keep licensing and maintenance to a minimum. I appreciate that for "enterprise" the added security and logging of BES/blackberry are desirable. Where I live, selling a decent backup solution is a hard task.

And for those about to suggest it - yes, I have tried the open source route. Hate to say it - they want Office, they want Outlook, they want their calendars/contacts/tasks/etc. That means Exchange. Pains me a bit, but I get over it.

Yes, the web and email and other internet facing servers are on linux VPSs - not gonna put Exchange or Sharepoint on a public IP, but in the LAN I have to go win*. Don't like it, would prefer otherwise, hope to see the day...

Interesting read, ballwall, and I truly wish you luck with your efforts.

I'm not much of a programmer, but as a SysAdmin (*nix by preference, win* by necessity) I was struck by some parallels I've observed. I find blackberries to be painful. Making them work as a mobile email device tied to Exchange requires a shiat-ton of ugly third party software.

If a client bothers to ask, (and they don't), I tell them iPhone first, WinMobile second, blackberry distant third.

BES is, IMHO, a steaming pile - java, dot.net, 32-bit only. Feh. Recent iPhones handle active sync nicely and don't bitch about self-signed certs. WinMobile is a bit harder, but install your certs and you're done. blackberries (I refuse to capitalize) give me pain.

My clients pay $$ for BES CALs, the devices get stupid and need to be factory reset often and re-activated, costing my client more $$ for my time.

A colleague says "blackberries are great, they help me spot THOSE people". I tend to agree. I honestly cannot see the attraction when there are better solutions to talk to an Exchange server - previously mentioned iPhones, WinMobile or a laptop with RPC over HTTP(S) all work more simply and more reliably, and I tell my clients so. Nevertheless, I still hear "but I've got to have a blackberry"!