[BBAdmin]

RIM Announces Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - July 6, 2006) - Organizations looking for a secure mobility solution without requiring internal IT resources, will now have the gold-standard in wireless as an offering from hosting service providers. Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced availability of Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM), new software that enables service providers to offer a hosted, managed service of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution(TM). Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server incorporates complete security, reliability, IT policy controls, compliance, and mobile application platform features for small and medium size businesses (SMBs).

Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server supports all the major enterprise email environments, providing tight integration with Microsoft(R) Exchange, IBM Lotus(R) Domino(R) and Novell(R) GroupWise(R), to give end users the benefits of secure wireless access to their business email with attachment viewing, access to enterprise instant messaging (with auditing for compliance), web browsing, synchronized wireless calendar, contacts and tasks, as well as the ability to access company intranet and other business applications.

"In today's fast-paced, competitive environment mobile connectivity is an essential business requirement, but many smaller organizations are looking for outsourced solutions," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM. "Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server will allow providers to address the SMB market with BlackBerry, the industry standard in mobility."

For the hosting service provider, Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server provides the flexibility and IT policy controls to offer the same level of BlackBerry(R) functionality enjoyed by larger enterprises as a solution tailored to the needs of a smaller sized business that need or prefer a hosted solution. The solution also allows the provider to host a wide range of mobile applications that can be run on BlackBerry devices via BlackBerry Mobile Data System(TM) (MDS).

"Many small and medium sized businesses utilize outsourced email solutions and employees of this group tend to also be among the most mobile in the marketplace," said Stephen Drake, Program Director for IDC's Mobile Software service. "Expanding their hosted email and application services with a wireless offering to their existing business customers is a natural extension for many hosting service providers to quickly realize increased revenue, decreased customer acquisition costs, and improved customer retention. For wireless carriers, offering hosted services builds on existing data network and business offerings, leading to increased data usage on their networks and new expanded target market segments."


BBAdmin's thoughts

It's certainly an interesting one, and you can see why they want to promote it, but there are plenty of places offering this service already so other than rasing the profile, I don't see the need to mention it. It may be that RIM will subsidise the software to a potential host, but I'm not so sure about that.

I would trust a service provider to host such a service, but not a carrier as you will always be tied in to them with your airtime. With a service provider you have a greater chance of changing networks if need be, while still retaining the hosting service, and the technical support they may offer with it.