Live at WES 2007
The day is definitely upon us. Make sure to keep checking this page for the latest updates throughout WES 2007. There will be a new post to refresh each day.
Keynote 1
8:58am- Crawford Del Prete, Sr. VP of Communications for IDC, opens up the conference with advice on discovering the various solutions available for the BlackBerry on display in the Solutions Showcase. He moves into the discussion of the fast pace growth of the wireless market space, focusing on the two major themes of WES 2007, mobile applications and unified communications – the latter being the catch-phrase in IT for 2007.
Keynote 2
9:26am – Dr. Mike Lazaridis, Founder, President and Co-CEO of Research In Motion, welcomes the 3500 in attendance at WES. He quickly pushes on to discussing the competitve advantage found through the use of mobile applications, such as corporate IM and email/PIM synchronization, corporate data stores (SAP, Oracle, web services, etc), and voice systems (PBX – see recent press release for integrated PBX offering from RIM).
Mobile convergence through unified communications continues to be a major theme, one which Lazaridis is "very excited" about seeing.
Skipping on through the hot topics, first up is the evolution of mobile devices, including the introduction of the seamless CDMA/GSM BlackBerry 8830.
Next on the list is ARGON, or BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, which will introduce wireless OS upgrades and maintenance, server-based monitoring, and high availability.
9:32am – I think I see Jim Basillie! Oh, no, that’s just an Elvis impersonator.
Keynote 3
9:41am – Jeff McDowell, VP of Global Alliances for RIM, speaks briefly on the fairly quick evolution of the mobile and wireless industires before welcoming Nigel Clifford, CEO of Symbian, to the stage. Mr. Clifford speaks on the openess of the Symbian platform and company business practices and then moves into the idea of unified communications.
Sami Muneer, Director of Solutions Marketing for SAP, is introduced as the next panelist for this keynote segment. He opens mentioning that their number one question from customers is "Does your application work with BlackBerry?" He discusses the requirements for customizeable and powerful, yet low cost and effective mobile solutions.
9:52am – Next up for the panel is HP Jin, President and CEO of TeleNav, who starts off discussing location based services and the immerging market for GPS technologies and solutions.
Joseph Ferra, Chief Wireless Officer for Fidelity Investments, is the next participant introduced on the panel. Might I say that I agree with the speaker concerning Mr. Ferra’s title and its representation of just how popular and important wireless technologies are becoming.
10:28am – We’re on our way to the Boston Room to listen in on, "Making the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution Work Harder for You". Such creative names…
10:44am – Jibi here, sitting in a more-than-packed Boston room waiting for this session to start. As the title mentions, this should teach us how to get the most out of the BES solution.
10:47am – Session begins on management tools available today and the evolution of the management tools to come in the future.
10:49am – Just as BG decides to join me, it looks like we’ll get a nice little surprise from RIM with this session, which will include the near-term future of BES management tools over the next 6-12 months. Deemed as immediate needs are high availability, monitoring, and better provisioning methods.
10:52am – Representatives from HSBC, one of the world’s largest financial corporations, have now come on to discuss their "right-sourcing" best practices and solutions, which includes BRAMBLE, an in-house solution for BES management, monitoring, provisioning and more.
11:15am – Presenting a cohesive web-based management interface
11:17am – Integrating with external directory servers
11:21am – Exposing a broad set of management APIs
11:29am – Improving the management of users and groups – nested groups in an OU-like structure
11:34-am – Increasing the flexibility of managing, controlling, and deploying applications and settings – custom role-based administration roles
11:38am – Enhancing manageability and security via customizable user rolesBlackBerry Administration Service – tiered architecture approach to administration (web-based Desktop and Admin Consoles in presentation layer)
11:42am – Managing users and groups, natively defined in BlackBerry domain, externally defined from LDAP data sources
11:43am – Updates based on changes in external data sources (management to integrate disabling users when accounts are disabled in Active Directory)
11:44am – Viewing web-based admin console prototype
11:45am – Assigning and deploying applications through a unified application management model
11:48am – Device handheld options will be administrator-defined on a granular level. Software whitelist and blacklist options will be available. Software deployment scheduling will also be included.
11:51am – Over the air operating system deployment through the current software configuration model.
11:52am – BlackBerry server groupings for topology and service provisioning for added role-based administration. Exporting and importing management data for cross-domain migrations and synchronized changes (IT Policy, settings, etc); multiple BlackBerry domain management tentatively within 18-24 months.
11:55am – Administration authentication against external data sources, such as Active Directory, or password-based management entry (current). This expands on role-based administration.
11:56am – Key points: Improved scalability for user and group management, unified model for application managmenet, increased flexibility for administration authentication for role-based management.
11:59am – Ok, well that’s it for now folks! Check back with us in a little bit for more coverage than you can handle!
1:00pm-2:00pm – Solutions Showcase: Browsed the numerous kiosks on the showcase floor.
Representatives from BoxTone, Avaya, IBM, RSA, PGP, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Research In Motion, TeleNav, TeleAtlas, and various other companies that are near and dear to our hearts had their solutions on-hand.
Please take note of the young lady above from the Idokorro team. She is, by far, the best looking active vendor/sponsor employee that I’ve seen so far. Kudos for being both beautiful and smart. 
More coverage from this side of the shop once I can sit down and browse them without having to deal with needy people wanting schwag (not that I wasn’t one of them, of course).
2:30pm – Headed back to the rat race that is the Solutions Showcase. Talked with representatives from Idokorro, Ascendent Systems, Voice on the Go, Big Hand, amongst others. The ones that stood out are Ascendent Systems, the integrated PBX unified communications solution, and Gwava’s Reveal, a SOX-compliant archiving and auditing solution, or as they put it "Big Brother for the BlackBerry". Ascendent Systems offers an amazing product, and I honestly look forward to viewing more information on this product, as unified communications will soon play a huge role within almost any and all corporations around the world. Gwava’s solution for auditing and archiving SMS, PIN and Phone Calls appears to be a GUI interface for the CSV-based audit logs available with BES 4.1, although I’m not 100% sure on that assumption. It offers a SQL-based storage and archiving solution with search capabilities and a really nice graphical interface for the non-tech types who are usually the ones tasked with looking at this audit information. Anyhow, more to come in a bit. There’s been some downtime or technical difficulties or rather boring and useless information for the masses, so we apologize for the gaps in time, unless you actually want to know what I’m thinking while a MasterCard representative speaks about their global deployment (trust me, you don’t want to know). I will give a special shout out to the platinum blondes at the Voice on the Go kiosk (when they were there) – very smart move with the eye candy.
3:41pm – Relegated to the "When Your BlackBerry Deployment Goes Global" session after the "Troubleshooting the BlackBerry Solution, Part 2 – Overcoming Administrative Hurdles" booked up solid.
Luckily, it will be rescheduled to tomorrow, although that means something else has to possibly go. This session we’re in is discussing global roaming, capabilities and functionality while roaming on other networks and various hurdles presented with a globalized and travelling work community. Not much to really cover here, unless you guys feel like sleeping for a bit.
4:07pm – Conference is now over after a fairly long day. Looks like we’ll be meeting some friends from the intraweb in the lobby in a bit over an hour and then heading off to Hard Rock Cafe for RIM’s customer appreciation party and Universal CityJazz for T-Mobile’s customer appreciation party. Stay tuned for pictures from the debauchery.
3:19am – Let me say that the night was a blast, first taking on the T-Mobile “Customer Appreciation Event” then heading on to Hard Rock Cafe, where Research In Motion was kind enough to host an entertaining night filled with music by local talent followed by Jim Belushi and the Sacred Hearts. Oh, and the alcohol, albeit QUITE limited on selection, was free of charge, so no complaints warranted. I ended up meeting with Doug from BlackBerryCool.com and various members of Research In Motion, as well as IT staff and BES administrations from Coca-Cola, M.D. Anderson, British Telecom, and other companies with representatives lurking around the CityWalk enclosure. One of the perks/schwag of the night was T-Mobile’s free giveway/takeaway of a new pair of sunglasses for anyone who was registered for the event, with the selection of taking the glasses with you for the night or having them delivered to the hotel. Obviously, for convenience purposes, I decided to have them delivered to my room. After ONE HOUR of battling with the front desk and bell hop, I received a package from T-Mobile … one problem – it wasn’t mine. This is absolutely RIDICULOUS! It’s not like I work for an itsy wintsy tiny bitty company who happened to recently adopt BlackBerry within the environment… But aside from that little hiccup, the night went on with a blast.
The night ended up with a visit to Pat O’Briens, world famous Irish pub and bar, serving cold Hurricanes drinks. Honestly, if heaven were still on Earth, we’d be living in it right now – simply an amazing drink that just keeps on hitting (especially when you’re on an empty stomach). Needless to say, WES has been more than fun (to me but probably not Mr. Marketing, Boy Genius). Pictures are on their way, althought it’s pretty darn late and my tummy is aching a tad.
8:40am – Just now getting to conference. I must say that this session coming up had me dreaming a bit sweeter last night. Titled “The New BlackBerry Enterprise Solution: What’s the Buzz?” and covering the upcoming release of BlackBerry Enterprise Server, codename ARGON.
8:55am – Well crap, I turn on the camera only to realize that the battery is completely drained and it’s not actually turning on. Oh well, pictures coming later than sooner, but I suppose that’s just one of the casualties of war. BG has decided to leave the conference for business in NY.
9:01am – Roadmap presented to the audience. BES 4.1 SP4 set for a May 2007 release. Web Desktop is also slated for May, with Enhanced Monitoring (NeedText) due out in June. BES 4.1 SP5 will be set for a November targeted release while BES 5.0 (ARGON), which introduces voice services (Ascendent) and high availability, is set for May 2008.
9:08am – BlackBerry Web Desktop presented. Mentioned that it went RTM (Released to Manufacturering) earlier this week. Will be available in the next few weeks from BlackBerry.com. Will allow for OS upgrades, etc. BES Montioring service (formerly NeedText) is slated for May/June release and will provide baseline monitoring. Will be compatible with BES 4.0 and above and will be a free download.
9:09am – BES 4.1 SP4 – OTASL will be introduced to allow over the air software loading, which will introduce wireless OS upgrades. OS is pushed to the device and user is then prompted to upgrade. Office 2007 file format support finally introduced. Slipstream browsing enhancements will be completely added into the solution.
9:11am – Introduction of ARGON.
9:12am – Beta program for ARGON will be 9 months rather than 3 months; this is set to be the longest beta period offered by RIM.
9:13am – Web-based interface and “WAN friendly”. New services and modules will be developed within a plugin-based design concept.
9:15am – Custom roles for administration introduced. Custom roles will be applicable to newly designed groups. As mentioned, the concept of groups within ARGON will be completely redesigned and overhauled. Users can now belong to multiple groups, which can be dynamic in nature.
9:17am – Will contain a heirarchival view of the system topology, as well as the ability to group servers within a collection of servers that can be customized for certain IT policies or software configurations for those certain servers within your BlackBerry domain.
9:19am – Demo time. WOOT! These are static pages, as the product has not been completely designed, although these will be the final mock-ups we’ll see in the released product. This interface is slick – a HELL of a lot better than what we’re used to seeing within the current application-based management interface. Ten thumbs up for RIM!
9:23am – I’m really kicking myself in the ass riight now for not having my camera charged. This interface is REALLY slick. I’ve been asking for web-based administration for almost 3 years now, and they’ve finally delivered my wish to me …except this is far exceeding my expectations.
9:29am – High availability being presented. Primary and Secondary BES running all services at all times and secondary server will have warm connections to messaging environment. When primary BES host fails, the dispatcher service on standby server will begin the failover process. Standby server will establish tentative connection to RIM network and become the primary server, validating it’s connection and services.
9:31am – Enhanced monitoring now the subject. Web-based interface, obviously. Will be able to archive data up to 52 weeks for trending purposes. PIN notifications can be configured for alarms.
9:34am – The high availability model will allow for limited downtime upgrading of servers. Failover configuration can be set to manual mode. The standby server can be upgraded with a manual failover following to allow the former primary server to be upgraded. Mentioned that engineering had worked very hard on this feature.
9:36am – Effortless PBX mobilization now being discussed. Direct menu integration within the Phone application on BlackBerry handhelds. Will allow core featureset for PBX systems support.
9:40am – Active directory (and other data sources) integration for management features. This can be designated for all or selected users. AD can then be used for management of these users and groups. No schema updates will be required for this functionality.
9:53am – Full complement of APIs and web services to allow for customization of the BlackBerry Administration Services to your own preferences. Examples would be adding a user to the BES, manual failover for BES, user filters for emails, etc.
9:55am – ARGON targeted for WES 2008. ARGON is designed to make life easier for all parties involved with the BES, from the end-user experience to management of the server.
9:56am – User question asking for dual calendar support, although there is no timeframe; going to be added to Top 10. On a related note, user questions public folder contact repository. Planned for ARGON release. This has been one of the major requests on BlackBerryForums over the past few years, so I’m glad to see this feature being added.
10:02am – User questions continue but I’m leaving this session. Let me reiterate that I’ve VERY excited about this release of BES. If they can deliver all that they are talking about (these speakers are the project managers over ARGON), then BlackBerry will surpass anything being introduced to the market, both currently and in the next year. Awesome stuff!
ok are they ever going to stop all this blabbering and show some cool devices? I so just walked out. BORING.
BG and Jibi way to go so far you are right on the money with these live updates! BlackBerryFool can’t hold a candle to your coverage! Wait I think I see you BG!!!!!!!!
so….when can I cop the 8300??
This is so exciting.
I cannot wait to hear more about this amazing even!
Thank you so much guys!!
Wow, can someone please tell me where you guys are got some interesting stuff to talk to you about!
cannot believe boy genius reports is here very exciting! you are staying for tomorrow events too?
Please tell us a date and what carrier the Blackberry 8300 will go to. Needs dates…..i cant take it anymore.
Good stuff guys! Keep it coming. Word to big bird.
Mobile Computing Authority (MCA) and BlackBerryCool (BBCool) are also doing a daily podcast from WES outside Solaris. Listened this morning. Awesome stuff!
I’ll be taking part in the podcast this afternoon at 5:00 PM, just so you know.
so WES lost its luster?
lack.of.posting@BGR.com
no more pictures no video and not even text for thursday?
what about the WES parties from wednesday night – Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T???
BGR Needs a fan party @ WES 2007 or WES 2008!
would be nice!