Questions on Switching from BB BES to Android (on Exchange 2010)

Vaporbox

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Mar 27, 2011
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:confused:
We are long-time Blackberry users, (since the first BB was released in the 1990's). We run Exchange 2010 and BES in a corporate environment but have pretty much had it with RIM at this point. RIM's software and devices are so buggy that we can no longer justify the cost to maintain RIM's products, so we are investigating making the move to Android devices and OS.

We have done some reading in the Android forums and looked at several Android devices, including the Motorola Droid 2 Global because we need global coverage and physical keyboards.

Here are the questions we have relating to if the switch from the BB environment to the Android environment will meet our business requirements:

Exchange 2010:

What features of Exchange 2010 are not supported by Android or an Android app?

We need each Android device to be able to simultaneously support multiple Exchange 2010 accounts from separate Exchange 2010 servers including email, contacts and calendaring as true Exchange 2010 accounts, not as IMAP accounts on the Android device.

(1) Email:

- We need real time push email (not simulated push via "polling").

- Support for email sub-folders and synching of same.

- Is there a significant impact on the battery life of the Android when true push email is in effect, (keep in mind we are coming from BB devices that employ true push email from the email server with little to no battery impact).

- We need each Android device to be able to support multiple IMAP or POP accounts in addition to supporting the above mentioned multiple Exchange 2010 accounts.

- We need the Android device to be able to reply to emails received by each of the respective email accounts with the email reply address coming from the account that received the mail originally.

- Are emails sent from the Android encrypted like they are on the BB devices?

- What are the security concerns around using Active Sync from Andriod devices as compared to BB devices communicating with the BB BES?

(2) Calendaring:

- We need each Android device, (without using Google Calendaring or a Google account), to fully support multiple Exchange 2010 calendars simultaneously in a combined calendar view and all Calendaring functions in Exchange 2010 including accept, decline, tentative, propose new time, forwarding of appointments, ability to edit the appointment, ability to create a new appointment and invite attendees from the GAL, reminders, snooze, reoccurring appointments and etc.

(3) Contacts:

- We need each Android device to be able support Contacts and Contact sub-folders and all fields supported by Exchange 2010 / Outlook 2010. In other words are there Outlook Contact fields that Android does not support?

(4) Syncing:

- The ability to do both wireless syncing of contacts and calendar(s) in Exchange 2010 as well as wired (USB) syncing of selected additional local Outlook PST folders that contain contacts and calendar appointments (that are not stored on the Exchange 2010 server). We are looking to have the functionality that we currently have in the Blackberry Desktop Manager 6.0 that let's users select which folders to sync via USB.

- Does Android use "ActiveSync", if so what features or drawbacks are there to ActiveSync vs the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES)?

We looked for answers to the above in the Android Central forums, and found bits and pieces but nothing definitive. As you can see, our business requirements call for a corporate multiple Exchange 2010 mobile device and OS solution that fully replaces our BB BES. Does such an animal exist in the Android environment?
 

takeshi

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I'm not going to address every single point. I don't know the answers to all your questions. However, it sounds like you just need to perform your due diligence not only with Android devices but with Exchange and IMAP/POP mail clients.

- We need real time push email (not simulated push via "polling").
Not a problem. ActiveSync is push. If there's polling involved it isn't push by definition.

- Support for email sub-folders and synching of same.
Not a problem. ActiveSync supports this. Be aware that not all Exchange clients allow you to select the subfolders to sync.

- Is there a significant impact on the battery life of the Android when true push email is in effect, (keep in mind we are coming from BB devices that employ true push email from the email server with little to no battery impact).
Versus pull? Absolutely. Just don't expect BB battery life even with push. There are certainly other battery hogs out there other than polling.

- We need each Android device to be able to support multiple IMAP or POP accounts in addition to supporting the above mentioned multiple Exchange 2010 accounts.
Not a problem. Again, you need to carefully evaluate the mail client options to ensure that your specific needs are met.

- We need the Android device to be able to reply to emails received by each of the respective email accounts with the email reply address coming from the account that received the mail originally.
Not a problem. If you configure the account with the mail client then this will happen by default. If you set up forwarding then that's an entirely different matter.

- Does Android use "ActiveSync", if so what features or drawbacks are there to ActiveSync vs the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES)?
Sync versus the BB's push-and-reconcile approach is a huge plus IMO. Centralized device management goes to BES IMO though (out-of-the-box anyway).

Be careful when evaluating Exchange clients. Touchdown's security, for example, applies only to Touchdown -- not the entire device, IIRC.
 

netposer

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If you think Blackberry's are "buggy" then stay away from Android then. They each have their quirks but BB's are the most stable and reliable corporate devices out there..period.

I support BB's (have been for over 10 years), Android OS and iOS devices on our corporate network.

BB's are easy if you are willing to pay for the BES. They require very little support and are extremely simple to deploy.

Unless you are going to get a Good server (Good Technology) plan on having NO Security on your Android devices unless you are using Honeycomb. Which means none of the phones support on-board encryption.

The "push" email on Android devices doesn't compare to a BB on a BES. This might not be a big deal to some users.

They are very different platforms and Android has a long way to go to catch-up in corporate environments. But I'm confident it will get there soon.
 

anon(1042122)

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Oct 9, 2011
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Re: Questions on Switching from BB BES to Android (on Exchange 20

Since there is already an existing thread on this, I did not want to start a similar one with my questions on switching from BB to Android and the features that are extremely important for me.


The answers could refer to default e-mail client OR touchdown (please specify)

1) Are there any keyboard shortcuts in e-mail client either in the e-mail list or while reading an e-mail. For example "I" would bring up the folder list in nested form in BB and you can move the e-mail to folder. N would be Next e-mail and U would be next unread e-mail. R for reply, etc.. Also you can easily switch folders in main e-mail list if you need to view different folder. All folders are listed in e-mail client of BB with a little icon next to them indicating if it is filed in a FOLDER or if it is in INBOX.

2) With reference to moving e-mails to folders or viewing folders, can we type the folder name to access to that? We have about 250 folders in our exchange server as we use folders to classify/categorize. So we can easily type the folder name in exchange or BB and we can go to that folder without having to scroll through many. I checked an older version of Android, and there was no way to type folders, is it still the same with latest version or with touchdown?

3) Blackberry remembers after you move e-mail on same subject to one folder few times, so in the future it displays the same folder. This is a very cool touch, although I don't expect Android to have this, maybe touchdonwn does.

4) Are notes synched with exchange server?

5) When I use exchange, will there be a lot of different address books and will I have to switch between them?
 

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