14 DAY TRIAL // Research In Motion announced on Monday the availability of BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, the company's next-generation secure, push-based server software developed for business mobility. The new 5.0 version comes with support for advanced IT administration features, as well as with smartphone controls that are meant to improve the productivity of mobile workers, while also being able to meet the needs of large-scale enterprise deployments.
BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 offers a secure link between the BlackBerry devices and enterprise systems, corporate phone environments, applications or wireless networks. It also features integration with IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise, while offering users secure access to email, instant messaging, organizer data, browser, enterprise applications or voice (via BlackBerry MVS).
“We are proud to unveil the next generation of BlackBerry Enterprise Server software,” said Mike Lazaridis, president and Co-CEO at RIM. “BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 significantly raises the bar for advanced IT manageability, high availability, system monitoring and reporting. It has undergone testing in real world environments for over a year and is available now for customers.”
Among the enhancements that are available with BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 we can count the BlackBerry Administration Service (offering centralized management, monitoring and control of smartphone deployments), role-based access controls (administrators can control access to IT functionality), better management of Over-The-Air application deployment, as well as of device software updates, and Mobile application management enhancements that simplify the management and control of applications.
Other features include Simplified IT policy management, 450 IT policies that can be applied to individuals or groups, System health monitoring, Advanced reporting features (trending, chart analysis and server statistics), high availability and automated failover, as well as the BlackBerry Enterprise Transporter Tool.
“The smartphone is essential for enterprises looking to improve employee productivity, accessibility, and responsiveness in today’s economic environment,” said Chris Hazelton, research director, Mobile and Wireless at The 451 Group. “As smartphones take on greater relevance in the enterprise and deployments grow, the demands on IT departments grow exponentially, making manageability, control and high availability must-haves in the supporting mobile infrastructure.”
RIM also announced that all current BlackBerry smartphones were supported with BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, while the BlackBerry Device Software 5.0 also included support for a wide range of smartphone features. The entire list, as well as more details on the enhancements available with the 5.0 version can be found here.