Sync Symbian devices with Exchange Server
by Volker Weber
Microsoft is smart. They have opened up their Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 to ActiveSync over the air. You put an Exchange frontend server into your DMZ, open up port 443 and people can access their mail over SSL. Either Webmail, or via ActiveSync with a supported mobile device.
What devices are supported? Windows Mobile 5 is no surprise. But other manufacturers have started licensing ActiveSync for their devices as well. A Palm Treo 650 for instance can sync mail and calendar with Exchange ActiveSync over the air. It is not really "push", since it is controlled by the device and not a middleware server. But for most people this might be good enough. Imagine a small company with Small Business Server.
What about other devices? Enter Dataviz RoadSync, an ActiveSync client that runs on any Series 80 phone (Nokia 9300, 9300i, 9500), a UIQ phone like the SonyEricsson P900 or P910, Palm OS devices like the LifeDrive, Tungsten C, T2, T3 and T5 (need a phone as a modem or WLAN access) but also the Treo 600 and 650. But that's not all. It basically runs on any Java MIDP 2.0 device like most Motorola phones including the RAZR. And Datawiz is already working on Series 60 devices which are popular in Europe. Palm OS and Java MIDP are somewhat crippled but the Symbian phones get E-Mail with attachments, calendar, contacts and features like access to global address lists on the server and the ability to remotely wipe lost devices.
Now do that with Domino. I know, Blackberry. But I mean, do it for small companies. IBM should either license ActiveSync or come up with something really quick. Something that has wide support like ActiveSync.
Comments
This is one of the things I don´t understand at IBMs product strategy. We have seen all these announcements at Lotusphere related to mobility: partnership with RIM, IntelliSync (Nokia), Good Technology etc. Why is there no integrated solution into IBMs messaging products? The answer I heard at Lotusphere: these partnerships will provide a broader device support and these partners are years ahead. Well, this is true now. But looking forward we will only have three mobile operating systems left in the market. So is the diversity still an issue? Unfortunatly IBM slept for a while. Anyone out there using Websphere Everyplace solutions? I only know very few companies working with it...
IBM has always told us about standards like SyncML, but they also failed to implement this standard in Domino. It could be a SyncML server, but it isn't.
If you want to see a SyncML server in action, try MobiCal.
Are you sure you get the mobile connection for free ? From MS ? Yes, it's integrated in Exchange, but I don't think it's free. And from this point of view, does it make a difference if it's integrated or a partner product ?
