BlackBerry Cloud Service for Office 365 available
Research In Motion today announced general availability of free cloud services for using and managing BlackBerry devices with the Microsoft Office 365 suite. The service is available at no additional charge to current subscribers of the Office 365 and works with BlackBerry smartphones on business or consumer data plans.
BlackBerry Business Cloud Services includes the following features:
- Wireless synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Online email, calendar and organizer data from a BlackBerry smartphone
- Support for BlackBerry Balance technology, which presents a unified view of work and personal content on a BlackBerry
- A web-based console for IT administrators to provision, manage and secure BlackBerry smartphones from anywhere
- Online access to employee self-service smartphone security functions, allowing users to reset a device password or remotely lock or wipe a device in the event of loss or theft
- Integration with the Office 365 administrative portal
The service is available in over 50 countries.
Microsoft finalized the acquisition of Skype
Microsoft announced that its acquisition of Skype has been finalized. The company confirmed that it had closed the deal, and revealed that Skype CEO Tony Bates will now report directly to Steve Ballmer in his new role as president of the new Skype Division of Microsoft. Skype employees will continue to be located around the world in offices including Estonia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States. Microsoft has vowed to continue support for the service’s standalone client, which allows voice and video calls, as well as instant messaging, to be placed over an IP connection.
“Joining forces with Microsoft is the best way to accelerate this mission and capitalize on our position at the intersection of social, mobile and video communications,” said Tony Bates. “Simply put, we want to transform communications. We will do this by building the best products in the world that allow all of us to do things together whenever we’re apart and by creating teams who work faster and smarter across the globe building those world-class products.”
GM Solutions laments the passing of Steve Jobs
GM Solutions laments the passing of Steve Jobs and offers its sincerest sympathy to his family. Apple had made a profound and lasting impact in our industry which in no small way is to the credit of this great man’s vision. Whenever his name hits the news great achievements follow. Decades of accomplishments culminated in revolutionizing handheld communications with the iconic iPhone that still sets the standard against which all competitors are judged. And then still paving the way with the easy to use tablet computer, the iPAD.
He will be sorely missed by all which though obvious, cannot be denied. Rest in Peace Steve and God bless.
Odessa moves into the cloud
Odessa moves into the cloud with their entire IT Infrastructure with great satisfaction. Basing most of their Online experience using Microsoft applications. GM Solutions has successfully integrated BPOS and an Online Server to provide all of the various and demanding needs of their growing business. This has made it possible for a fast growing company to have a matching scalability at a very reasonable cost.
Plans are already in the works to expand to subsidiary and partner companies so that all can take advantage of a very cooperative team environment to work in. Thereby enabling a global cohesiveness for all day to day business needs not only in the offices but by secure Online Meeting that enable video conferencing with simultaneous presentations using any application at the presenter’s hand. The future looks bright for Odessa and the cloud.