RE the pop quiz, "name the [thing]"
Feb. 27th, 2015 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingI honestly thought I had more Exchange+RIM survivors who would have jumped on this sooner.
But:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nubule and dantheserene got it right, I was talking about Blackberry Enterprise.
Pulling an explanation up from a comment there:
Blackberries before Blackberry OS10 had two modes, Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) and Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES). They're so close in name and acronym because RIM (now Blackberry) ARE THE WORST AT EVERYTHING HOLY FUCK.
Your BIS data plan was like a modern smartphone data plan. It gave you internet access and checked your email and let you do all the things a Smartphone does.... except connect to an Exchange server.
Your BES data plan was exactly like a BIS data plan, except it works with Exchange, and your Exchange provider's BES server, to give you Exchange access on your Blackberry. And it also tended to cost 5x as much.
This all happened forever ago. It's ancient history. It's 2006.
Since then, smartphones were invented and Microsoft created ActiveSync, which works to seamlessly provide Exchange access to iPhones and Androids and, once Blackberries FINALLY got somewhere close to modern, Blackberries. Activesync is also free, and works on a normal data plan.
But: Any iPhone, any Android, or any Blackberry 10 device, connects to Exchange through Activesync and Just Works.
Any Blackberry *before* 10 requires BES, which means it requires that the Exchange server have a BES server with BES enabled for the Exchange account (vendor #1) and your cellphone provider needs to provide a BES data plan (vendor #2), and then you need to do Enterprise Activation and push Service Books and all kinds of RIM crap from before smartphones were a thing.
My client has several Blackberries from before Blackberry 10. And my recommendation to get them onto the brand spanking new Exchange 2013 server was "walk into Best Buy[1], buy a fucking iPhone[2]" because that's SO MUCH EASIER.
[1]: Or Future Shop or Rogers Store or the cellphone kiosk at Costco or....
[2]: Or any Android, or even a Blackberry 10 device if you can't live without a phone that sucks, but NOT BLACKBERRY 9.
But:
nubule and dantheserene got it right, I was talking about Blackberry Enterprise.Pulling an explanation up from a comment there:
Blackberries before Blackberry OS10 had two modes, Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) and Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES). They're so close in name and acronym because RIM (now Blackberry) ARE THE WORST AT EVERYTHING HOLY FUCK.
Your BIS data plan was like a modern smartphone data plan. It gave you internet access and checked your email and let you do all the things a Smartphone does.... except connect to an Exchange server.
Your BES data plan was exactly like a BIS data plan, except it works with Exchange, and your Exchange provider's BES server, to give you Exchange access on your Blackberry. And it also tended to cost 5x as much.
This all happened forever ago. It's ancient history. It's 2006.
Since then, smartphones were invented and Microsoft created ActiveSync, which works to seamlessly provide Exchange access to iPhones and Androids and, once Blackberries FINALLY got somewhere close to modern, Blackberries. Activesync is also free, and works on a normal data plan.
But: Any iPhone, any Android, or any Blackberry 10 device, connects to Exchange through Activesync and Just Works.
Any Blackberry *before* 10 requires BES, which means it requires that the Exchange server have a BES server with BES enabled for the Exchange account (vendor #1) and your cellphone provider needs to provide a BES data plan (vendor #2), and then you need to do Enterprise Activation and push Service Books and all kinds of RIM crap from before smartphones were a thing.
My client has several Blackberries from before Blackberry 10. And my recommendation to get them onto the brand spanking new Exchange 2013 server was "walk into Best Buy[1], buy a fucking iPhone[2]" because that's SO MUCH EASIER.
[1]: Or Future Shop or Rogers Store or the cellphone kiosk at Costco or....
[2]: Or any Android, or even a Blackberry 10 device if you can't live without a phone that sucks, but NOT BLACKBERRY 9.