We have been hearing about RIM’s collaboration with Microsoft for a RIM hosted cloud BES since BlackBerry World. That product is finally starting to come together in the form of BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365. It is a RIM hosted BlackBerry Management Service for Microsoft Office 365 hosted Exchange. RIM is saying that a number of Fortune 500 customers and several government agencies have been testing the system out for a bit now and it is now ready for public beta. The best part is that BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is available for no extra charge to Microsoft Office 365 Midsized Businesses and Enterprise Plan subscribers and works on both BES and BIS BlackBerry data plans.
Alec Saunders waltzed up on stage at the DevCon keynote and started to explain the BBX platform strategy RIM is running. He presented the slide you see above as the basis for BBX. He points out that there is the BlackBerry X OS on the basis and then there is these “BlackBerry Cloud Services” that everybody just stayed really quiet about and didn’t explain further. I am not sure what he meant by these BlackBerry Cloud services but it could have something to do with RIM’s recent acquisition of NewBay which is a cloud based white label service provider. On the other hand that could be BBM, BlackBerry ID, App World, and such though that doesn’t seem right. It could be something like the new BBM Music and the upcoming Video store that is also coming but not much has been said on that since it is not inherently a development tool.
With SugarSync and DropBox yet to release an official BlackBerry PlayBook app its nice to see that Box.net just put one out. Their app lets you access their cloud storage service to store, send, and access files from your PlayBook. It actually has a pretty slick interface that I hope SugarSync and DropBox are paying attention to. The Box.net app for the PlayBook comes with 50GB free storage for you to kick the tires and includes features like:
View your files from anywhere directly on your BlackBerry PlayBook
Share files easily with a link
Upload files from your device to Box
Save content to your tablet for offline access
Keep in mind you need their premium service to sync files from your PC for offline access. You can check out their PlayBook app in App World or learn more about the service at www.box.net.
Soonr let us know they released their native BlackBerry app this week. Their app takes a different approach from SugarSync and DropBox with more business and collaboration features like teams, remote access and security baked in. They also have SLA’s along with SAS 70 and HIPAA compliance in their own infrastructure to help businesses adopt the cloud approach. You can see the concept in action in the video demo:
Their BlackBerry app gives you access to that data on the go with a Soonr Premium account for $9.95 per month for three users and 25 GB of storage. Soonr Pro is $29.95 per month for five users and 100 GB of storage. Extra storage is available from $.25 per gigabyte and additional users can be added $8 per person. You can get a free trial of Soonr at www.soonr.com and pick up their BlackBerry app in App World. Check out the details in the press release below:
Soonr Releases Native BlackBerry Application to Access, Store, Share and Sync Files in the Cloud
CAMPBELL, Calif.—Sept. 8, 2011—Soonr Inc., a cloud services company focused on team productivity for small and medium businesses (SMB), today announced a native application for BlackBerry touch screen smartphones including the new BlackBerry Torch. Reflecting the way business “works,” Soonr Workplace is a secure cloud service allowing teams to work together on digital content from any device, anywhere in the world.
The Soonr Workplace Touch application is specifically optimized to support BlackBerry devices with touch-based interfaces including the Torch 9800, Storm 9530 and Storm2 9550. The combination of Soonr’s cloud service and BlackBerry touch screen devices provides business users instant access to information on the go. Soonr currently serves over 50,000 organizations around the world, providing mobile access from more than 800 devices including Android, Android Honeycomb, BlackBerry, iPad and iPhone, with patented rendering technology to view files locally in seconds.
“The introduction of BlackBerry touch screen technology is the perfect complement to the ease of use and productivity Soonr enables,” said Martin Frid-Nielsen, president and CEO of Soonr. “We continue to expand support across Android, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone and other indispensable tools for conducting business today, and remain committed to connecting users to teams and content 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of the device they choose.”
Unlike Dropbox and Mozy, Soonr goes beyond backup and sync and was designed from the ground up with teams, remote access and security in mind. Soonr manages its own secure, carrier-grade infrastructure with geo-redundant data centers. Dedicated to security and reliability, Soonr has achieved 99.9+ percent availability since 2006, and offers 256 bit encryption, SAS 70 and HIPAA compliance.
Pricing, Support and Availability
Soonr Premium is $9.95 per month for three users and 25 GB of storage. Soonr Pro is $29.95 per month for five users and 100 GB of storage. Extra storage is available from $.25 per gigabyte and additional users can be added $8 per person. A free trial of Soonr is available at www.soonr.com.
Soonr supports Mac and PC and more than 800 mobile devices including Android, iPhone and Blackberry, iPad and Android (Honeycomb) tablets.
Soonr delivers a secure cloud service for teams to work together on digital content from any device, anywhere in the world. Built on a carrier-grade infrastructure, Soonr is trusted by the world’s leading brands, service providers and more than 40,000 businesses. Founded in 2005, Soonr holds several technology patents and is a privately held company backed by HighBAR Partners, Clearstone Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Cisco and Presidio Ventures. Connect on www.soonr.com, Twitter, and Facebook.
BlueBox has been stealing all the thunder with their BlackBerry PlayBook DropBox client. Now we have competition in town from Files & Folders by Innovatology. Their new app is a file manager for your BlackBerry PlayBook with integrated DropBox support. It lets you manage your file on DropBox as if they were local letting you copy and paste folders and files between the cloud and your PlayBook.
I don’t have an active DropBox account to test this out with but a friend said it works nicely. Innovatology is selling Files & Folders for $1.99 in App World with a trial available.
