I know that Microsoft pretty much "rules the roost" when it comes to supporting enterprise messaging and since the release of Exchange Server 2003 (SP2), it can support synchronization of e-mail to Windows Mobile based PDAs and SmartPhones, so why does there still seem to be such a plethora of software providers out there with products that also synchronize Exchange e-mail over-the-air (OTA)?
Well, I'll answer part of that question myself; personal preference. I'm sure this tenet may hold true at quite a few organizations, but it appears that many of the clients using these handhelds to access their e-mail are executives and executives usually get what they "want". I do believe strongly that they should have access to this technology and they usually make good use of it. Unfortunately, I have seen instances where someone tried to standardize on one e-mail synchronization platform, only to have their efforts squashed because a handful of people didn't want to accept the standard.
I have to congratulate RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) on this account, because there are some very loyal BlackBerry customers out there and I can understand how the term "CrackBerry" was coined. RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) was the first e-mail synchronization product I ever used and I think it's been very difficult for many vendors to match their reliability and on the handheld side; their ease of use.
One would think that an organization could encourage users to adopt some of the newest Windows Mobile-based SmartPhones as a replacement for their BlackBerry and then eliminate their BES infrastructure by utilizing the native handheld synchronization capability of Exchange. If the users can't bear to let go of their BlackBerry, I've heard of instances where the BES infrastructure could be left behind by forwarding SMTP messages from Exchange directly to handheld, although I'm not sure how reliable or secure this solution would be.
Is there a synchronization product out there or your own solution that can truly challenge BES? Does the introduction of Apple's iPhone pose a threat to the BlackBerry or could Google's Open Handset Alliance mix things up?
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