Review: BlackBerry Professional Software

Topping out at 60 simultaneous connections, Professional provides a wide array of features that are not available on the higher enterprise product (RIM, apparently, wanted to throw everything but the kitchen sink into Professional). The software can be integrated with IBM's Lotus Domino Server 8.0 or Microsoft Exchange 2007. In addition, Professional supports Web-based instant messaging and provides connectivity to corporate applications. RIM is even giving free installation support.

Here's what the CRN Test Center found after a few rounds in the Test Center lab with Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM and its new baby:

Installation

To simplify installation, RIM created a preinstalled process that checks for compatibility with hardware, OS and servers. RIM has posted a step-by-step installation instruction so that solution providers can quickly get a BlackBerry server running on an Exchange box. During the preinstall process, CRN reviewers found one step that required further clarification. The BlackBerry server requires a MAPI client for Exchange 2007 and Microsoft's Collaboration Data Objects, including data access components, .Net framework and other tools. The MAPI client and Data Objects, however, are a separate install and RIM's documentation did not mention this fact.

We found another configuration problem when installing Professional on the Exchange box, which is that Exchange needs to create a public Outlook folder that isn't automatically created during the installation. Solution providers have to add a value into a registry key to make this work, and fixing the key provides access to BlackBerry manager settings. The installation embeds a SQL Server Express 2005, so there's no need to separate the database. We found that installing the Express engine simplifies the database installation. Professional's BlackBerry Manager and BlackBerry server stores and manages policies and configuration properties.

RIM also has done a good job streamlining BlackBerry Manager's user interface. By integrating with Active Directory, users can be ported into Professional automatically. All of the features are connected in a single workspace, so solution providers just have to bounce between tabs to add new users, set policies and/or connect new devices.

To speed up the setup process, shortcuts are available by right-clicking on user accounts. Solution providers can quickly add devices, set passwords and send messages. Before loading a handheld BlackBerry, the ports need configuration on some servers. The Test Center found that the serial ports to USB were not automatically turned on.

Managing Services

Out of the box, Professional provides pull-and-push features for messaging that work over the HTTP ports. The connection service supports RSA Authentication as well as SSL and certificates. Because the services are built in to BlackBerry Manager, solution providers need only configure settings for each of the services. Professional puts out a log file to track devices and messages, including changes made in the server. The push service provides a single point of entry between server side applications and BlackBerry devices. Applications can use the push server to pass data to handheld devices. However, developers must add the code necessary for corporate applications to communicate with the service. In addition, the BlackBerry Manager provides several properties for managing application policies. With these properties, solution providers can manage access to multiple domains, give phone and personal information message access to applications and even manage GPS maps from devices.

Working With Users And Policies

While selecting and adding new users is easy because the properties collected from Active Directory are visible within BlackBerry Manager, reviewers found that the properties in Professional must be configured separately. Solution providers can force edits, synchronize PIM mappings, and even clear backup data from handheld devices. Likewise, solution providers can create new IT policies based on a list of properties that are built into the server. Essentially, the policies are based on various group configurations, and are granular enough to lock down features in the devices. For instance, solution providers can set a policy to enable or disable cameras, or allow access to voice calls for messages, or configure Bluetooth readers. Within Bluetooth, solution providers can tweak identification heartbeats, timeouts, range of coverage and control PC transactions.

Security also plays a big part when configuring new policies. Solution providers can enforce public keys based on encryption types and default key lengths. The PGP encryption, for instance, provides three key length settings and standard cipher strengths, such as AES 256 bit, CAST 128 bit and Triple DES to encrypt data transmission. The encryption settings also accept timeouts and signatures.

Handling BlackBerry Devices

Connecting and activating handheld devices proved to be a bit more difficult than anticipated, even though Professional provides several ways to connect. During the installation, the most basic method to detect and add a device is to hook it up in the USB drive so that the USB drive shows up with the device. If this step is not taken, Professional changes its port connection to the serial ports.

Although the serial ports support USB connections, turning the property on is another matter -- and the Test Center was unable to use the local USB ports to connect a BlackBerry 8130. After several tries, the serial ports could not latch on to the USB ports, so reviewers were not able to connect to the device.

Professional also provides wireless activation through a WLAN environment. To configure the WLAN setup, reviewers right-clicked on a user and activated a password. In the 8130, we located the advanced options setting and entered the e-mail and password that we used in the BlackBerry Manager. However, turning on WLAN requires that both the BlackBerry server and the device are visible to each other. Using this method, the device sends out broadcasts to identify the BlackBerry server, which means that the connection requires the Exchange server to have a WLAN card installed. Otherwise, there's no way for the handheld device to find the BlackBerry server.

Adding Value

Due to the simplicity of Professional's communication architecture, all of the services and features can reside on an Exchange 2007 server box. But there's added cost associated with combining all of these services into a single server. Before installing Professional, we recommend connecting devices into an Exchange server if possible.

If there's one problem with Professional, it's that rolling this all out means considerable time consumption for planning, integrating and deploying it -- which prevents the Test Center from fully recommending Blackberry Professional Software at this stage. But if RIM can improve some documentation and iron out a few more of these wrinkles, VARs would be less likely to lose valuable time.