SEMblog

Still using BES 4.1? Then this blog posting will be of interest to you. 

There were lots of announcements from Blackberry last week during their convention, but one that probably got buried in all of the handset news is probably of interest to Exchange administrators. 

If you are still on BES 4.1 then you can now get a free upgrade to BES 5. That is the full BES, not BES Express. 

http://uk.blackberry.com/business/blackberry-10/blackberry-10-ready/upgrade-path.html

You can use the transporter suite to migrate to the new version of BES with almost no downtime for the end users. 

Note - this is the full BES 4.1, not the older Professional or other free options. If you are using BPS then you should move to BES Express.

The reason for Blackberry doing this is to encourage moves to Blackberry 10 devices. One of the features of the BES 10 version is able to manage both Blackberry 10 and older devices from a single interface. However for that to work the older devices need to be on a BES 5 server. 

If you are using BES 4.1 now is the time to upgrade.

If you have devices still using OS 4.x then it would also be a good time to look at upgrading those, at least the OS, but preferably the device as well. 

If you are in the UK, then I can assist you with this upgrade, please use my business web site to contact me: http://www.sembee.co.uk/