Anyone for BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express? It's free!

Just got this in from BlackBerry’s European PR:

Research In Motion (RIM) has today launched BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express as a free download from www.blackberry.co.uk/serverexpress. BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express is free new server software that wirelessly and securely synchronizes BlackBerry® smartphones with Microsoft® Exchange or Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server. Learn more about BlackBerry Enterprise Server by clicking here.

Organisations that wish to install the software are recommended to utilise the supporting materials for download, by first checking their system requirements and then following the user installation guidelines. The features of the software can be found here.

I think this may well be of interest to quite a few readers. You get the following features:

* Manage smartphones in your organisation, including resetting passwords, or remotely wiping lost or stolen smartphones. Choose from over 35 IT policies.
* Define policy settings using IT policy templates
* Delegate tasks with 6 preconfigured IT administration roles.
* Deploy and manage applications over-the-air
* Schedule device, application and IT policy updates
* Update BlackBerry® Device Software wirelessly without users having to bring the device to IT

The key point is that it can be installed and run on the same server that’s running your Exchange software so you don’t have to mess around with additional servers and licenses. Absolutely ideal if you’re an SME wanting to deploy BlackBerry without the huge traditional overhead.

There’s a test environment being setup for the media — I’ll try it out and let you know what I think.