awarren85
asked on
Exchange 2003 - Use Non-Blackberry Mobile Devices
Good afternoon,
Our company uses an Exchange 2003 server hosted by a sister company of ours and their IT staff. They setup a Blackberry Enterprise Server a few years back and we have several users (myself included) which use it. However, we have the need now to be able to use non-Blackberry devices (iPhones, Droids, etc.) with the Exchange server, however the sister company is being very very slow about adopting this. The sister company provides employees with Blackberries where we don't, so that might be the problem :).
Anyway, we're trying to investigate a way to enable non-blackberry access to the Exchange server. I know normally this is trivial, however in our case we have no rights or access to the Exchange server at all. I've come up with two options by myself:
1) Outlook Web Access: Route the users via their iPhone to a secure page, allow them to login with their AD credentials and then send them to OWA. This is maybe the simplest, however it doesn't do "push" notifications, such as new e-mail.
2) Some type of middleware. Something to sit between Exchange and our mobile devices to act as a intermediary.
We also need the ability to be able to "wipe" the device, such as it being lost or termination.
Just looking for some advice.
Thanks.
Our company uses an Exchange 2003 server hosted by a sister company of ours and their IT staff. They setup a Blackberry Enterprise Server a few years back and we have several users (myself included) which use it. However, we have the need now to be able to use non-Blackberry devices (iPhones, Droids, etc.) with the Exchange server, however the sister company is being very very slow about adopting this. The sister company provides employees with Blackberries where we don't, so that might be the problem :).
Anyway, we're trying to investigate a way to enable non-blackberry access to the Exchange server. I know normally this is trivial, however in our case we have no rights or access to the Exchange server at all. I've come up with two options by myself:
1) Outlook Web Access: Route the users via their iPhone to a secure page, allow them to login with their AD credentials and then send them to OWA. This is maybe the simplest, however it doesn't do "push" notifications, such as new e-mail.
2) Some type of middleware. Something to sit between Exchange and our mobile devices to act as a intermediary.
We also need the ability to be able to "wipe" the device, such as it being lost or termination.
Just looking for some advice.
Thanks.
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ASKER
Very very cool stuff. I'll take a look at these two options. Thanks for your quick reply.
Keep in mind that the hosting staff has the ability to turn off mobile sync for each user account. The only real option you have is OWA. To test if activesync is enabled try connecting a driod, iphone or windows mobile to your email account. You will need to know the exchange server public address and your username and password.
From a management and security standpoint I understand why they are using Blackberry. I'm sure they will appreciate you curcumventing their system. :)
From a management and security standpoint I understand why they are using Blackberry. I'm sure they will appreciate you curcumventing their system. :)
Hi,
Look at programs like Outlook Mail Pro for iPhone/iPad - this synchronises mail on the device with OWA not ActiveSync:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/outlook-mail-pro/id434458848?mt=8
To support remote wipe of the devices, you'd need a third party MDM solution and a hosted vairant might be more suitable if you're a small company:
http://www.mobilityarchitects.com/en-UK/home/services/HostedMDM.aspx
http://www.fromdistance.com/?page_id=609
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/mobile.html
Regards,
RobMobility.
Look at programs like Outlook Mail Pro for iPhone/iPad - this synchronises mail on the device with OWA not ActiveSync:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/outlook-mail-pro/id434458848?mt=8
To support remote wipe of the devices, you'd need a third party MDM solution and a hosted vairant might be more suitable if you're a small company:
http://www.mobilityarchitects.com/en-UK/home/services/HostedMDM.aspx
http://www.fromdistance.com/?page_id=609
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/mobile.html
Regards,
RobMobility.
ASKER
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I downloaded emoze and love the concept, however could not get any support for an issue and it seems older and outdated.
Moved on to looking at Outlook Web Pro. Looks awesome except that it's missing push notifications. I'll also need to figure out how to secure the owa portal better before exposing it to the public Internet.
The mdm software also looks promising, but I'd assume I'd ou were using outlook pro app it's "live" on the server so maybe mdm isn't needed? If your exchange account is deleted or password changed that would be sufficient? Any tips on securing owa better? Thanks for everyone's help.
Moved on to looking at Outlook Web Pro. Looks awesome except that it's missing push notifications. I'll also need to figure out how to secure the owa portal better before exposing it to the public Internet.
The mdm software also looks promising, but I'd assume I'd ou were using outlook pro app it's "live" on the server so maybe mdm isn't needed? If your exchange account is deleted or password changed that would be sufficient? Any tips on securing owa better? Thanks for everyone's help.
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I decided to go with DavMail, which basically connects to OWA and gives you POP3, IMAP, SMTP, LDAP and CalDav. I forwarded these ports outside and have the test iPhone connecting to them with no issue. Added an SSL Cert inside of DavMail for the services and put the ports for the services on non-standard ports hopefully for additional protection.
I've e-mailed a few companies for the hosted MDM which should take care of the rest of the concerns I hope.
Please let me know if there are any potential pitfalls or issues with doing the above.
Thanks everyone for your help!
I've e-mailed a few companies for the hosted MDM which should take care of the rest of the concerns I hope.
Please let me know if there are any potential pitfalls or issues with doing the above.
Thanks everyone for your help!
and other devices have support for this servie too.
You can try it too.
This could synch calendar, task, contacts, in addition to emails.