Looking to implement the new BlackBerry 10 devices in your office? Here’s the skinny.

A run down on operating systems and servers

• Old BlackBerry devices are running BlackBerry 7 OS or older.
• Old BlackBerry Enterprise Servers (BES) are BES 5 or older.
• New BlackBerry devices will be running BlackBerry 10 OS (estimated release date of first device is mid-March; the Z10 will be touchscreen-only with no keyboard).
• New server is BES 10.

The new BlackBerry devices will be able to connect natively to Exchange ActiveSync without a BES for email, calendar and contacts, which is good news. This connection would be just like Android and iPhone devices.

They won’t connect to existing BES 5 or older servers. If you wanted to use some of the additional BES policies and features beyond the above mail, calendar and contact sync, then the user would need BES 10 installed, which is no longer free.

Compatibility between devices
Additionally, older devices won’t talk to BES 10, and BlackBerry 10 devices won’t talk to older BES devices. So if it’s an environment where you would have older BlackBerries and new BlackBerry 10 devices, you would need to have two BES servers running in parallel.

Questions? Our consultants can guide you through the process.