BES v5.0 Part I: What’s New in BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 5.0? « BoxTone Blog — News and Commentary for the Mobile Enterprise Professional

BES v5.0 Part I: What’s New in BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 5.0?

BoxTone for BlackBerry BES 5.0

Back in February, RIM rolled out BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 5.0 to the media and indicated that it would be available in the second quarter. It’s the second quarter and WES2009 is fast approaching, so it’s probably safe to assume it will be out soon. This two-part series will cover the highlights of what we see is most important for those managing, monitoring and supporting the BlackBerry platform: what’s new with BES 5.0 itself and then what’s new with BoxTone for BES 5.0.

So, why should you care about BES 5.0?

The software has been in development for a very long time and it implements many of the suggestions made by BlackBerry customers all over the world. The focus has been to make the BlackBerry environment easier to manage and includes some features that are really going to make a BlackBerry administrator’s life easier. Here are some of the key features recently announced:

A brand new web-based BES administration tool using the BlackBerry Administration Service (BAS). BlackBerry administrators will like this because it means that they will be able to administer the BlackBerry environment from any PC with no additional software required. Don’t miss our next post which will dig more into the new BAS.
More reliable BES infrastructure using the BES High Availability feature of BES 5.0. BlackBerry administrators will be able to configure BES pairs (primary and secondary) where the secondary takes over for the primary if the primary fails – with no interruption of service for mobile users. We’re big fans of monitoring end-to-end user experience and system health, and like RIM’s approach of using ‘heath scores.’
Over the Air (OTA) BlackBerry Device Software upgrades. BlackBerry administrators will be able to upgrade their mobile user’s device software (Operating System and associated files) without having to physically touch the device or trying to get the users to do it themselves. Upgrades can be throttled and set to run off hours too. Of importance is the restriction that only BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 and higher will be able to take advantage of this feature – so there’s a compelling reason now to upgrade your handheld code if you haven’t already.
Dramatic improvement in the BES application deployment process. BlackBerry administrators will be able to deploy BlackBerry applications with a level of flexibility that has never been available before. Now mobile users receive applications through group membership (users can be members of multiple groups) and the apps are deployed from a database rather than a complex folder structure. This feature will help accelerate adoption of enterprise applications for BlackBerry simply because they will at long last be easy to deploy.
Scheduling of IT Tasks. BlackBerry Administrators can now schedule many of the off-hours administrative tasks they normally had to perform by hand. What this means then is that it is very likely that the BES administrator can enjoy even more of their evenings, weekends and holidays.
Enhanced Roles & Permissions. BlackBerry administrators will have finer control over what IT Personnel can administer/affect in the BlackBerry environment. This will allow organizations to segregate administration tasks on a user/group level and will give larger organizations the ability to limit the scope of control assigned to different parts of the IT organization.

Click here to read Part 2 of this series.

For those that want to learn more, here’s a roundup of other online resources for BES 5.0:

So that’s a quick rundown of what’s new in BES 5.0… very exciting indeed! In our next post we’ll highlight what’s new for BoxTone with BES 5.0. We’ll look at how BoxTone software and best practice recommendations can help BES Admin’s simplify and speed their migration to take advantage of all these great new capabilities, fast. And perhaps a sneak peak at some new BoxTone for BES 5.0 technology…

John Wargo, Product Manager

Share and Enjoy: