With RIM’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium kicking off tomorrow they have officially released a new version of their BES. The new BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 brings several new features and should also bring the release of OS 5.0 for most BlackBerry smartphones as well. If you want to check out more details on BES 5.0 head over to BlackBerry.com. Here is a list of key features that version 5.0 brings:
- BlackBerry(R) Administration Service, a new administration component with a web-based user interface that provides centralized management, monitoring and control of smartphone deployments and the complete BlackBerry system environment. IT staff can easily access the BlackBerry Administration Service from an Internet Explorer web browser.
- Role-based access controls allow IT administrators to delegate tasks to IT staff, either individuals or groups, and control access to IT functionality. Screen consoles display only the functions that are available to the individual IT administrator.
- Over-The-Air application deployment and device software updates can be better managed and controlled with job scheduling and throttling.
- IT administrative task scheduling supports the deployment of device, application and server updates at times that can help minimize impact on smartphone users and business operations.
- Mobile application management and deployment enhancements support the efficient management and control of applications across smartphone deployments, allowing IT administrators to:
– Publish updates and optional applications that are available for download by smartphone users.
– Push mandatory applications or updates to individuals or groups of users.
– Identify “disallowed” applications to prevent smartphone users from downloading prohibited applications.
- Simplified IT policy management allows IT administrators to create groups of smartphone users and nested groups, then apply IT policies or perform IT tasks for one or more groups, in addition to applying policies to individuals.
- Approximately 450 IT policies that can be applied to individuals or groups of smartphone users, ranging from enforcing smartphone password protection and controlling access to third party smartphone applications, to controlling the use of specific smartphone features, such as using a camera or video recording.
- System health monitoring provides a unified, color-coded view of the BlackBerry environment, both server and user related, for the easy identification of potential issues.
- Advanced reporting features, including trending, chart analysis and server statistics, provide a comprehensive view into the overall health of the BlackBerry system environment. BlackBerry Enterprise Server also stores up to 56 weeks of health scores for historical trending analysis.
- Built-in high availability and automated failover allows IT administrators to set BlackBerry Enterprise Server to automatically issue alerts and then failover to a standby server when certain thresholds are met. Load balancing between the primary and standby server is an option for some shared service components like the Attachment Service. Manual failover from the primary server to the standby server is an option for IT administrators to perform planned maintenance tasks without affecting smartphone service.
- BlackBerry Enterprise Transporter Tool makes upgrading to BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 easy and seamless. It streamlines the transfer of multiple user accounts from one BlackBerry Enterprise Server domain to another without impact to or action required by end users.
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