The RIM-hosted Blackberry cloud service for Office 365 users is going to be available in January 2012, with an open beta kicking off in October 2011. It’s been known for a while that there would be a gap between the time that Microsoft launched Office 365 and when Blackberry cloud service would be available for Office 365 users. Until last week, the exact length of that gap wasn’t officially confirmed.
But now word is out: General availability of Blackberry cloud services for Office 365 is expected to be in January, 2012.
BlackBerry is currently seeking participants for an open beta program for the beta, which will commence later in October. BlackBerry Business Cloud Services will provide mobile access to email, calendaring and organizer data with Exchange Online. The RIM-hosted version of the service is taking the place of the Microsoft-hosted Blackberry Enterprise Service for Office 365 Standard users, Microsoft officials announced last year. (Microsoft will continue offering a Microsoft-hosted version of BES for Office 365 Dedicated users only.) RIM and Microsoft announced last year that the price of the hosted BlackBery service will be cut to zero. The pair also said at the time the new Office 365 Blackberry service would be launching later in calendar 2011. I’ve asked Microsoft officials to confirm the 2012 date is a worldwide availability one, but have yet to hear back.
But now word is out: General availability of Blackberry cloud services for Office 365 is expected to be in January, 2012.
BlackBerry is currently seeking participants for an open beta program for the beta, which will commence later in October. BlackBerry Business Cloud Services will provide mobile access to email, calendaring and organizer data with Exchange Online. The RIM-hosted version of the service is taking the place of the Microsoft-hosted Blackberry Enterprise Service for Office 365 Standard users, Microsoft officials announced last year. (Microsoft will continue offering a Microsoft-hosted version of BES for Office 365 Dedicated users only.) RIM and Microsoft announced last year that the price of the hosted BlackBery service will be cut to zero. The pair also said at the time the new Office 365 Blackberry service would be launching later in calendar 2011. I’ve asked Microsoft officials to confirm the 2012 date is a worldwide availability one, but have yet to hear back.
