Blackberry - server setup etc

Author
Discussion

funkyol

Original Poster:

1,816 posts

220 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
Hopefully someone should be able to help.

It's been recognised that some staff in my company need the use of a blackberry - mainly PR and some Marketing. I'm trying to get some basic information as to how much it costs to get setup - we're running Microsoft Exchange server and I'm assuming you also need a server running Blackberry software, then there's the cost of the handsets. Is there anything else that's needed? Monthly subscription etc?

sheetstabuer

19,058 posts

216 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
You can go the exchange server way and a blackberry server or go straight to the networks and get them to do it, you'll need your exchange to do pop3 if you go the network route.

Personally I would get exchange server 2003 and use smartphones or PDAs as they have been thought about when designing 2003 server and the integrate pretty well

Blackberries are hateful devices.

_dave

347 posts

223 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
The Blackberry Enterprise Server requires dedicated hardware or a VMWare session. It uses a fair amount of memory (v4 onwards).

For less than 15 devices, BES is free from here: https://www.blackberry.com/express/?cp=ILC

You will need to have a Blackberry contract with your choice of service provider. Likely costs will be ~£25 a month with a fair use policy on bandwidth use (with free devices). You should look at the 8700/8707 range for heavy e-mail users and perhaps the Blackberry Pearl if the user won't be replying much to messages or is concious of holding a larger BB to their ear...



Blackberries are great devices. Intuitive and very well thought out. The RIM infrastructure is second to none and offers compression and high encryption out of the box.

Edited by _dave on Thursday 4th January 15:41

V8LM

5,174 posts

210 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
As sheetstabuer said, if you're using Exchange with SP2 then you have ActiveSync which will syncronize email, contacts, calendar and tasks with many PDAs and phones, and you will not be locked into one type of technology. Also means you don't have to provide them as many people will have appropriate phones.

m12_nathan

5,138 posts

260 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
BES will run on the exchange box if not too many users are on it.

Very easy to set up and no incoming firewall ports opens unlike the microsoft solution.

Network charge is the same for both solutions, £10 a month for me on vodafone.

agent006

12,043 posts

265 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
The Blackberry server is one of the nicest pieces of software i've had the pleasure of maintaining in a few years. Lots of logs with nice explanations of what's going on.

skeggysteve

5,724 posts

218 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
sheetstabuer said:
You can go the exchange server way and a blackberry server or go straight to the networks and get them to do it, you'll need your exchange to do pop3 if you go the network route.

Personally I would get exchange server 2003 and use smartphones or PDAs as they have been thought about when designing 2003 server and the integrate pretty well

Blackberries are hateful devices.


Well I've only had my Blackberry Pearl for a month or so but it does everything I was told it would do and some.
Don't use/need the server thingy, just an o2 email address but I would recommend Blackberry to anyone that has a need for mobile email/internet access.

Q. Are exchange servers not Microsoft kit?
If they are 'that' good why does most of the internet run on other peoples kit?

Just my 2p worth

Posted via Firefox, Linux & something else on the server

ThePassenger

6,962 posts

236 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
skeggysteve said:
Q. Are exchange servers not Microsoft kit?
If they are 'that' good why does most of the internet run on other peoples kit?


Because the internet was built by people with large sideburns, jesus boots and egg stained shirts. They stole the secrets of Exchange from Microsoft and then made Sendmail, Qmail and such using the secret technologies. You must purchase a copy of Exchange for all your e-mail server needs otherwise your illegal!

*looks around* *runs for her life*.

agent006

12,043 posts

265 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
skeggysteve said:

Q. Are exchange servers not Microsoft kit?
If they are 'that' good why does most of the internet run on other peoples kit?


Lets not turn this into an MS vs Everyone thread please.

skeggysteve

5,724 posts

218 months

Thursday 4th January 2007
quotequote all
agent006 said:
skeggysteve said:

Q. Are exchange servers not Microsoft kit?
If they are 'that' good why does most of the internet run on other peoples kit?


Lets not turn this into an MS vs Everyone thread please.


'Twas not my intention

Just a reply in response to someone saying that MS is great and Blackberry is crap, with out an explanation.

Could also be viewed as agreement with your first post
...............
ThePassenger

m12_nathan

5,138 posts

260 months

Friday 5th January 2007
quotequote all
Exchange is an awesome piece of software, that and Domino have the corporate mail market nailed, no free *nix mail server touches exchange for functionality, it isn't used on the internet as it's functionality isn't required to blindly forward on emails, the posters were comparing the microsoft push mail with blackberry not exchange with anything else.

BB is better than MS push mail anyway

stigproducts

1,730 posts

272 months

Friday 5th January 2007
quotequote all
for a blackberry infrastructure the costs are huge

-server
-server housing (e.g data centre)
-monitoring costs and software
-software licenses
-one license for every user
-support costs- what happens when BES goes POP, people wont help for free
-handsets
-monthly line rental


it all adds up.......to a lot of money eg

BlackBerry Enterprise Server software including 20 end-user licences £2,500.00 (not free)
Additional packs of 10 end-user licences £350.00 (thats £35 per user)
Additional packs of 50 end-user licences £1650.00



Edited by stigproducts on Friday 5th January 12:37

m12_nathan

5,138 posts

260 months

Friday 5th January 2007
quotequote all
BES server is free for up to 15 users
BES server free edition comes with one free client license
You host it alongside your exchange infrastructure using existing networks connections
For a few users you can install BES on the exchange server

Total additional cost of Blackberry infrastructre = £0

Then just £10 a month to your provider per handset.

sjg

7,459 posts

266 months

Friday 5th January 2007
quotequote all
How much are the extra CALs for the free edition out of interest? I had a Blackberry 8100 turn up on my desk today and was told to get it up and running for someone important. So one is free, what are we looking for the next, and the one after that? What happens when you hit 15 - do you have to re-buy those CALs?

I take it I can get the device set up on a test account with my free CAL, and reassign it to the eventual user without needing more?

m12_nathan

5,138 posts

260 months

Saturday 6th January 2007
quotequote all
About £100 each from memory. Once you hit 15 you need to buy the full version of BES to add another user, I think the CALS transfer accross.