Monday, October 31, 2005
Is Microsoft's Implementation of Direct Push The Blackberry Killer?
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "ARTICLE" @ 06:00 AM
http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/email_aacjcehbfg_ag/
"Blackberry killer. That's Microsoft's hope for its new ActiveSync Direct Push Technology in Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 for Windows Mobile 5.0. Gives non-Windows handsets fast Blackberry-like access to all your Exchange stuff: messages, schedules, contacts, tasks lists, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Allegedly works with darned near everything and everybody Microsoft licenses... Redmond thinks ActiveSync with Direct Push Technology will finally bring it within spitting distance of Chatter and, hope-of-all-hopes, surpass hosted services like Blackberry and Good. The company's ace-in-the-hole... all-in-one-box convenience... makes lots of network managers giddy enough to bite. More security-minded admins may choose to wait. Windows Mobile 5.0 has been FIPS 140-2 certified. Its encryption method is OK for use by the U.S. Government. Unfortunately, its message transport system is not."
To bring you up to speed, current Exchange 2003 servers (pre-SP2) did push via an SMS message to the device to trigger a sync. Of course, SMS messages can be delayed, lost and are hardly less than real time, especially as users travel the globe. Service Pack 2 for Exchange 2003, coupled with the Microsoft Security Feature Pack in Windows Mobile 5 (everyone offer up a stylus and memory card over a warm USB hub to the gods of mobile computing so they may bestow upon you the ROM update necessary for this :roll: ) will allow your device to maintain an HTTP link directly with the Exchange server regardless of where you are, so long as you have a link via a cellular service, WiFi users need not apply, you can count on almost instant emails, perhaps faster than those in your network slogging away at a desktop. The server will then tug on that HTTP link, an HTTP refresh command, that will then initiate the sync. It is said to be faster notification than that of Blackberry users.
"Blackberry killer. That's Microsoft's hope for its new ActiveSync Direct Push Technology in Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 for Windows Mobile 5.0. Gives non-Windows handsets fast Blackberry-like access to all your Exchange stuff: messages, schedules, contacts, tasks lists, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Allegedly works with darned near everything and everybody Microsoft licenses... Redmond thinks ActiveSync with Direct Push Technology will finally bring it within spitting distance of Chatter and, hope-of-all-hopes, surpass hosted services like Blackberry and Good. The company's ace-in-the-hole... all-in-one-box convenience... makes lots of network managers giddy enough to bite. More security-minded admins may choose to wait. Windows Mobile 5.0 has been FIPS 140-2 certified. Its encryption method is OK for use by the U.S. Government. Unfortunately, its message transport system is not."
To bring you up to speed, current Exchange 2003 servers (pre-SP2) did push via an SMS message to the device to trigger a sync. Of course, SMS messages can be delayed, lost and are hardly less than real time, especially as users travel the globe. Service Pack 2 for Exchange 2003, coupled with the Microsoft Security Feature Pack in Windows Mobile 5 (everyone offer up a stylus and memory card over a warm USB hub to the gods of mobile computing so they may bestow upon you the ROM update necessary for this :roll: ) will allow your device to maintain an HTTP link directly with the Exchange server regardless of where you are, so long as you have a link via a cellular service, WiFi users need not apply, you can count on almost instant emails, perhaps faster than those in your network slogging away at a desktop. The server will then tug on that HTTP link, an HTTP refresh command, that will then initiate the sync. It is said to be faster notification than that of Blackberry users.
