[Cyberslam]

Hi all,

We are looking at installing Blackberry in our environment and i am confused whether we should go for BPS or BES. We are using Exchange 2003. Our requirements are:

- BB for 10-12 users
- Wireless synchronization of the address books and folders (subfolder,sent items, other subfolders, etc..) just like we use PDAs with Windows Mobile OS.
- More security i.e. capable of wirelessly wiping out the stolen or lost BB device.
- More control of the added user's BB Devices.
- Able to install applications.

So, looking at our requirements which solution would you guys recommend?

Also, if we go for BPS then is it okay if we install it on Exchange 2003 server it self or separate?

Thanks in advance.

[knottyrope]

Most apps can be done with BPS but it has a few limits.
Yes it can be installed on exchange but you will have more users someday which will require a seperate server and its better to leave exchange alone.

Low end server with raid and 2 gig ram should be all you need and very cheap these days.

[SmoothRunnings]

Originally Posted by Cyberslam

Hi all,

We are looking at installing Blackberry in our environment and i am confused whether we should go for BPS or BES. We are using Exchange 2003. Our requirements are:

- BB for 10-12 users
- Wireless synchronization of the address books and folders (subfolder,sent items, other subfolders, etc..) just like we use PDAs with Windows Mobile OS.
- More security i.e. capable of wirelessly wiping out the stolen or lost BB device.
- More control of the added user's BB Devices.
- Able to install applications.

So, looking at our requirements which solution would you guys recommend?

Also, if we go for BPS then is it okay if we install it on Exchange 2003 server it self or separate?

Thanks in advance.

I would avoid installing BPS on a Exchange box because if you run in trouble down the road and you need to call Microsoft PSS they might rule out BPS as being the cause and tell you move it to another box before they can assist you further.

It's just more head aches that you don't need that's all..

A separate box doesn't have to be a huge power house either, you can easly get away with installing it on a P4 2.8Ghz, 2GB RAM (Ram is cheap), HD (separate spindle from OS drive), machine. The last place I worked at had such a box running their 4.0 BES server with 100 clients on it no problems.

We currently run our BPS in on VMWare session with 1 CPU and 1.5GB of RAM and have 10 users.

A.

[Cyberslam]

Originally Posted by knottyrope

Most apps can be done with BPS but it has a few limits.
Yes it can be installed on exchange but you will have more users someday which will require a seperate server and its better to leave exchange alone.

Low end server with raid and 2 gig ram should be all you need and very cheap these days.

what sort of apps limitations does BPS has compared to BES?

and i assume from your reply that BPS can handle wireless synchronization of address books, subfolders in Outlook etc.. ?

btw, what are the difference between BPS and BES then?

Thanks

[DavidAdams]

One biggie is the omission of Enterprise Messenger. Which for us would mean no SameTime.

[Cyberslam]

Originally Posted by DavidAdams

One biggie is the omission of Enterprise Messenger. Which for us would mean no SameTime.

i believe in order to use enterprise messenger we should have Office Live Communications Server 2005 installed in our environment, right?

anyways, most of the features in ent. messenger are available in built-in BB messenger to communication between company employees.

[DavidAdams]

Not an Exchange environment so can't comment but I think so as far as OCS is concerned.

The BB messenger will only work between BBs, whereas OCS/Sametime work with clients on other platforms. Users at their desks being the usual case in point.

[bertiebassett]

Originally Posted by Cyberslam

what sort of apps limitations does BPS has compared to BES?

and i assume from your reply that BPS can handle wireless synchronization of address books, subfolders in Outlook etc.. ?

btw, what are the difference between BPS and BES then?

Thanks

BPs is designed to be easier to install - i.e it checks that you've set stuff up correctly and try to guide you through the process, whereas BES leaves it a bit more up to you.

IIRC - the other key differenced between BPS & BES (apart from the Enterprise IM detailed) is 'enterprise voice services' - which I think is the ascendent stuff - i.e. being able to link your BB to your PBX so that the BB is just an extension.

My view would be to go with BPS for the number of users that you have/planning to have..

[cde3879]

As I understand it, you can use MDS with BES but BPS does not support it. However with the number of users you have, I doubt MDS is something you will be implementing.

For the standard features you need - wireless sync of everything, remote wipe, handset policy management etc, you don't need full blown BES, BPS will be fine.

[Cyberslam]

Thanks guys for your inputs.

From what i understand there are some advance features which we can get with BES but since we are staring with BB so maybe its a better idea to start with BPS and then move to BES once the needs arise.

cde3879, what is MDS?

[cde3879]

Originally Posted by Cyberslam

cde3879, what is MDS?

BlackBerry - BlackBerry Mobile Data System Applications