Intune Connector updated

Microsoft Intune Exchange connector (5.0.6175.0) was updated last week. I couldn't find any updates on what exactly it did. I reached out to ask for some release notes, but I haven't heard back. We went ahead and upgraded as Microsoft has a pretty good track record lately with these. Also the roll back seemed very straight forward. I'll let you know if I learn anything else

BES 10/Fusion API's

I really wish RIM would make it so you can tell the difference between doing something with the API's and the BAS console. Even if it was some log file entry somewhere. It is a pain in the ass looking back trying to figure out which one did something. This feature would be so easy to implement.

BES 10 hosted/on prem

It looks like RIM is putting more and more information everyday about BlackBerry 10/Playbook 2.1 etc: They even launched a new website BlackBerry 10 It looks like BES 10 is going to be in two forms, one is going to be on premises, the other is going to be in a hosted model, similar to how Microsoft handles Office 365.

I am curious to see how they are going to integrate with Office365. So far it seems that MS has been less then willing to work with MDM players. Here is the policy guide/admin guide from RIM Admin Guide

Mobile Fusion

So lately I've heard a lot of talk about BES 10. I did some research, and it looks like BES 10 is just mobile fusion with BES 5.4 built into it. They are going to rename mobile fusion to BES10 to remove the confusion. So in the future it is going to look something like this.

BlackBerry Fusion. Well I've had the pleasure of using BlackBerry fusion for the past month or so. Besides what we saw at BlackBerry world, I am not sure how much I can say. I will say that I am both impressed with the solution, as well as hoping for more. I think the BlackBerry 10 platform is very impressive and innovative, but I feel as if RIM is leaving some of its loyal following out.

Transporter

BES Transporter online mode can cause massive problems if going from server 2008 BES to server 2003 sp2. Make sure the network comp ability patch is not applied, or you will end up reactivating a massive amount of users.

Android vs win7

I think it is really interesting that we are finally starting to have some movement on the up and coming win7 mobile and android front. Now as a BlackBerry fan-boy, I will always tell you that a BlackBerry does not fit directly against those two devices as the BlackBerry fits a different role that is out of context of this post. But basically, a BlackBerry to me, is and always will be a enterprise device. Until one of those devices comes out with a enterprise server model that sits inside my corporate firewall, I am not interested. ( and no, the APNS bullshit does not count, apple does not get how corporate America works when it comes to IT and compliance )

I think corporate wise, MS has a huge lead in understanding the thinking of the IT environment. Let me explain, traditionally two things really defined what your company's IT department was going to look like. Cost and efficiency. Everything was a by product of this. When you think about this logically, it is going to be really hard to sell people like me on an android open source initiative. Microsoft is the defacto standard when it comes to enterprise platform. Now what does this have to do with the mobile platform? Well...Everything

Microsoft has proven that they are able to take an enterprise product (exchange, SQL, share point, Windows Server, Windows client etc etc:) and make it a standard. So when companies are going to try to make a mobile platform secure and standard, they are going to look to companies with a track record of success, and it is going to be hard to look back Microsoft dominance in this field. We'll see how it plays out though.

On a side note, RIM thank you for sticking up for the Enterprise and basically telling UAE to go fuck themselves if they wanted access to the RIM NOC. I mean, what did they expect to do with the information anyway? I mean honestly, its not like you actually hold any encryption keys.

Seriously