RIM rolls out BES 5 Service Pack 2, preps admins for new BlackBerry 6 features

Today, Research in Motion's middleware for managing BlackBerry devices in enterprise networks, BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), was upgraded to service pack 2. The upgrade directly addresses the problem presented to IT when an increasing number of users are using their personal BlackBerries for corporate communications.

"People are buying smartphones for that rich personal experience, but then looking to bring that smartphone into the office to take their work with them as well," Santiago Carbonell, Handheld Software Product Manager at RIM said two weeks ago. "What we're working on is building a platform of coexistence between these two lives on one device...However, this means that in the interests of corporate security, some BlackBerry smartphone users can't add their personal email accounts, access Facebook or download third party applications."

With the upcoming BlackBerry 6 platform and BES 5.0.2, BlackBerry admins will be able to handle only the corporate information without fear of accidentally wiping personal contacts, calendar data, communications or applications from employee-owned BlackBerries.

Today's upgrade adds a handful of other noteworthy features, including Single Sign-on (SSO), an identity authentication system that keeps users on enterprise intranets from having to keep signing in when they want to access corporate files or systems. Users can also be given the ability to admin their own devices, which includes the ability to reset passwords or even remotely wipe all data if their phone is lost. Previously, this could only be done by IT admins, but now it is an option afforded to anyone in the system.

Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 are all now BES-certified platforms as well, though SQL Server isn't expected to be fully supported for another 30 days.

BES v5.0 Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino are both available for download from RIM.