BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 Gains IM Capabilities

Published: March 14, 2006

by Alex Woodie

With a possible court injunction that would have closed Research In Motion behind it, the maker of the highly popular Blackberry wireless e-mail devices have set out to improve its wares with the delivery of the version 4.1 releases of BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Enterprise Server-Small Business Edition, which provide integration with IBM Lotus and Microsoft Exchange collaboration platforms.

The new release, which was unveiled Friday, heightens the integration between the instant messaging capabilities of BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the instant messaging products from IBM and Microsoft, including Windows Messenger, Live Communications Server 2005, and IBM Lotus Sametime. This brings new "enterprise-class" IM features to BlackBerry users, including presence, group chat, "buddy list" synchronization, message auditing, and enterprise access controls using the Exchange or Domino tools.

The new release also sports the new BlackBerry Mobile Data System (MDS) application development and deployment environment; provides a single interface for managing multiple BlackBerry Enterprise Servers; supports group-based administration for implementing e-mail filters, auto signatures, and application- and mail-synchronization updates; as well as new auditing and security capabilities.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 can connect to Lotus Domino environments and access lists running on any type of server, including OS/400. However, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software itself is only supported on Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003. Licenses for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 running with Exchange or Domino start at $2,999 per server. Licenses for BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 4.0 is available at the same price for Novell GroupWise.