I'm a Blackberry.. I'm an Exchange Server with Active Sync

I though it to be appropriate to continue my blog this morning with the same story I left off on last April. Research In Motion (RIM) has announced yet another outage that left users in North America without service. The second such outage in 2 weeks.

I have been using ActiveSync with my Windows Smartphone for well over a year without any major issues. Activesync is built into Exchange Server 2000/2003 and 2007. I wonder why companies opt for Blackberries? Devices are more expensive, the Enterprise Server carries a heavy price tag, and you have no control over the network. With Palm's introduction of the Treo 755p, they have included ActiveSync capabilities with their VersaMail application which runs on the PALM OS.. So those of us who are not completely comfortable with the Windows version can now get the same functionality as Blackberry users...

RIM: "Oops"

I don't know about you, but before I put anything into production, I fully and completely test it before doing so. And once testing is complete, I plan on implementation on a weekend, not a Tuesday evening.

I have trouble digesting RIM's explanation of the outage last week. They contend that this was supposed to be routine upgrade, and a service wide interuption was not expected. They also went on to explain, and I beleive to get sypathy from fellow geeks, that with technology, things don't always go as planned.

Beleive what you want, but I think there is no way that their explanation makes sense.

Blackberry Goes Down

Looks like Blackberry users will need to read and send messages the old fasioned way this morning. It seems as though RIMM is experiencing a system wide problem that is effecting all users in the US. RIMM stated that they need to "reset" their system, but are concerned that the backlog of messages will create an even larger problem.

I'm glad I have my Q using ActiveSync. Say what you want about Microsoft, but I can check my mail this morning. :)