RIM has now publicly announced that the Blackberry Enterprise Server 10, which is coming soon, will work with existing Blackberry devices, contradicting an earlier report published on Tuesday. The new BES 10, expected to launch at the same time when the new handsets are unveiled, will be provided as an upgrade to the current BES to make sure the new Blackberry Enterprise Server works with both existing legacy models and new Blackberry 10 models. RIM has confirmed that that BES 10 will work with all Blackberry devices, old and new, including the Blackberry Playbook tablet.
CIOs and IT Departments earlier went into an uproar over the fear that they would have to run two different versions of BES using two different servers in order to support both types of models, namely the Blackberry legacy devices and the new devices that will run on Blackberry 10 OS. This would possibly lead to increased costs for corporates. Tension peaked on Tuesday, when it was reported by BGR that the new Blackberry Enterprise Server 10 would only work with devices running on the yet to be released Blackberry 10 OS.
RIM was quick to respond to the erroneous report, fearing that the tension among CIOs and IT departments could escalate. This could lead to the loss of some valuable enterprise business, which the struggling Canadian based company can ill afford. RIM is currently losing valuable market share in most countries, and it would depend on the release of the new QNX-based Blackberry 10 OS, and the new devices that run on it. Both are set for release in early 2013. A RIM representative said that the new OS and Mobile Fusion service work in a multi-server environment. However he declined to comment on potential pricing.
However, in a recent update, BGR is sticking to its earlier report, maintaining that companies will have to run both versions, namely BES 5 and BES 10, for the newer Server to work with existing Blackberry legacy models. BGR also claims that RIM confirmed with a statement : “BES 10 will need to be installed in either a Virtual Machine or a new server in addition to the existing BES 5 deployment.”
