BlackBerry Hosting Expands

BlackBerry users will get calendar, task, and contact synchronization at lower cost from Microsoft’s hosted Exchange service, with the addition of subscriptions to BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

While BlackBerry users already get wireless e-mail synchronization at no extra charge with Microsoft’s hosted Exchange (using the BlackBerry Internet Service offered by mobile telephone companies), more advanced wireless synchronization—of calendars, global address lists, and tasks, for example—required customers to purchase their own licenses and support contracts for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) from Research in Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry’s manufacturer. Organizations also need BES to perform management tasks such as wiping data from lost BlackBerry devices, for example. BES costs about US$3,800 for a server license and 20 Client Access Licenses, and Microsoft added another US$5 a month for BES services.

Microsoft has now joined RIM’s BlackBerry Alliance Program and licenses BES directly, enabling BlackBerry users who subscribe to Microsoft’s Exchange Online Standard to get full BES support from Microsoft for US$10 a month, without requiring them to license BES separately. (Prices for Exchange Online Dedicated, used by organizations with more than 5,000 users, are not public.)