Do I really need Blackberry Enterprise Server or anything like that? Why can't I just put in my login/password details and sync like I normally can with an iPhone or Droid?
Really, what the fuck. The iPhone plus all Android phones have built in functionality to sync with Exchange. Easy as pie.
If you are trying to sync with exchange then you need BES or (and I cant remember the name of it) the slimmed down version (which may be free, but I cant IIRC). In this case, truly blame Canada Now if you are syncing with a system that just uses Outlook you dont need anything to sync other than what comes in the box. This is what I do.
Or, you can just log onto your phone company's website and input the exchange details into their web service, including an exact logon to your exchange server the way you would to log onto it via the web. If you still have problems, call your phone company's support and ask them to elevate you up to RIM. T-mobile is great about that. Takes about 15 minutes to get on the phone with RIM through them.
Heh. Still pretty stupid that it would be so complicated. Either way, fuck Exchange in the ass, and fuck RIM. I'm going to go with Google Apps for Businesses. $50/year for 25GB and all the other goodies? No way anyone can compete with that.
You don't even need to pay. There are free apps for organizations with under 50 people. That said, a lot of orgs deploying Google Apps are reversing course due to data security, privacy issues - and the fact that there are no service level guarantees.
Oh, and since your company is new, take advantage of the microsoft program giving you every Microsoft program in existence for essentially free for the first three years of business - or until you hit 1 million in revenue, whichever comes first. I think they call it bizspark.
Yeah, I got that already. But, I don't want to deal with setting it up. I just want to have my email on my phone synced with my computer.
I don't blame you. It. Is. A. Pain. They're trying to appeal to small companies by making it free, hoping to tether them to it long term. Well, guess what? Small companies don't have the resources to dick around with something that gay.
Because I am lazy, how much is a copy of exchange? Also are there services that will host your exchange on a virtual server? I.e. I own a micro business and dont have the space or patience to set up an exchange server, but I would sure as hell like some of the benefits.
Cloud hosted exchange services cost about $10/user/month. Its a good deal. Except for having to pay an additional $10 to have Blackberry sync. Fucking RIM.
If you're a small business with less than 75 users, you would want to go with Small Business Server. You get the benefits of a local domain, sql, and exchange on one box. If you don't go with bispark (which you would be dumb to do if you're less than three years old and have less than a million in revenue) you're looking at about 740 for SBS 2K8. This comes with five licenses. You can get increments of 5 for 180. You can handle your licensing by device, or by user. If you were a call center, you'd do it by device. If you're a small company with core people using multiple devices on the network, you do it by user.