Google Apps Connector For BlackBerry Enterprise Server

Using Google Apps on your BlackBerry was not really an easy job. But things are about to change soon as yesterday Google has announced the upcoming release of the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

The Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server would allow Blackberry Smartphone users to access their Gmail and other Google applications using the Blackberry applications they already have. For instance, users can instantly receive Gmail messages within the built-in email client on their Blackberry smartphones. And they can continue to use the same shortcuts to manage their BlackBerry messages.

New events recorded in Google Calendar would be immediately updated on the BlackBerry Calendar, keeping both calendars in sync. Users can also access the email addresses and phone numbers of their co-workers using a company wide Global Address List. Both personal and business contacts saved on Google Apps are automatically synchronized over the air to users' BlackBerry smartphones and integrated into the native Blackberry smartphone applications. Users would also be able to synchronize BlackBerry folders with labels in Gmail, search for email addresses and phone numbers of other users on your company domain etc.

And the good news for the IT administrators is that this transition is seamless. Admins are given full control of the solution and can continue to manage BlackBerry smartphones using BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Google Apps Connector installs on BlackBerry Enterprise Server, connecting it to the Google Apps cloud and synchronizing email, calendar and contacts for all BlackBerry smartphone users.

The system requirement for the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server requires Windows 2003 Server SP2 (approximately 1GB of disk space per GAC for BES user) and BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 Service Pack 6 Maintenance Release 4. You can download the datasheet from here.

Currently in it's Beta testing phase, the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server would be released this July, and it would be available free of charge to all Premier and Education Edition customers.