[aau007]

In this technology world, I don't believe in 'future-proof'. Not RIM, not Good, not even Microsoft. Technologies these days are tools. You use them when they are benficial and available, and you switch to a different tool if necessary.

Certainly I did not read the Visto filing in details, however, whether they have iron-clad patent as a basis is not for me to judge. The lawsuit is still going to drag for years even if the court finds merits.

The point is: Good is no longer a safe harbour alternative to protect your mission critical business operations and investments.

Everyone and everything is subjected to lawsuit. I have never considered Good as a safe harbor. It is simply an alternative to consider. If you find that it does not fit your needs, don't use it. I evaluate products for people's or business's needs and find goods and bads about them. I believe every products has its merits. It just may not be for everyone. Unlike others, I don't generalize RIM as the king of portable email and all others are trash. Obviously, no one is a safe harbor in my book.

I would stay with RIM for until it is over, and if RIM can not provide me with the service I want- find another alternative, one that is not threatened by the lawsuit and years in courts, and risk of shutting down. One time is more than enough.

So you suggest to stick it out with RIM. If the unfortunate ever happens, just tell your users to give you a few weeks to find an alternative while they are out?

What makes you put your job or carrier on the line for the privately held company with no responsibilities to anyone whatsoever, with who knows how much or little money in their coffers to survive through lawsuits, facing patent infringement conviction?

Not patent infringement conviction. You are IT and get a notice from senior management asking for alternatives to RIM, not necessarily replace it, but as a contingency plan. You turn around and tell them they are crazy because RIM will never get shutdown and setting up contingency plan is idiotic. Next thing you know, that is your last day at work.

Many of us are given the daunting task of proposing a contingency plan for BES and are looking for advice. Good is certainly a consideration by many. Keep the bashing up on Good while not providing other suggestions are not very helpful to your fellow forum members. Telling us to go tell our boss not to worry is also not helpful unless some members here are willing to stick their head out to our bosses to gaurantee RIM's continual service.

Personally, I don't believe RIM will be shut down but I will not gaurantee that with my job. If my boss wants a contingency plan, I do my job to dig around and find the best alternatives for the proposal.

[BES admin]

Originally Posted by aau007

BES admin,

I really admire your dedication to RIM. However, some of us working in IT simply do not dictate corporate IT policies and are just taking instructions from senior management. If you are the one making all the company IT policies and taking full responsibilities, you can always live and die with RIM without anyone objecting.

Like many of us regular IT people, we are handed the task to seek alternative/backup plan for RIM. Our performance, in many respects, is measured by how good we handle the tasks assigned; not how good we bash senior management's decisions. Your dedication to RIM seems to suggest that there is no RIM replacement/alternative and just hang on to the idea that RIM will not be shutdown or even interupted in any which way. That's ok. At this point, until the day comes by, it is still your opinion but many of us simply will not put our job or career on the line for RIM.


That's your believe and I will not contest that. Your statement simply tells me that you are a RIM supremist and no one will be able to change that.

I am a simple IT peeon like the rest of you BES admins. I do what they say when they say. So I am not really calling any shots.

I mentioned to my Boss the other day that Good was being sued now too and it wasn't just RIM. His response?

"Great! now we can't get into trouble for making the wrong (wireless solution) choice."

What am I going to do in any event? I already investigated Good as a solution. As much as I have against it, it's the next best thing out there.

I can tell you this... I am not planning on jumping the RIM ship before it sinks. Right now it doesn't even have a hole in it, so until it does, I am standing firm on RIM ground. Showing any weakness in this area could make management jittery and get them thinking that we should make a move prematurely.

I may be prepared to make a runner-up choice in oher words, but until they ask me to actually make a decision, mums the word.

[aau007]

BES admin, I am glad your boss has sense of humor.

I don't believe anyone will just throw out their BES just because of the lawsuit. I have not heard of anyone doing it, at least. It is matter of contingency planning and getting ready to bring in an evaluated alternative if anything happens. I know many companies will actually spend the money to bring in a small Good environment to prepare but doesn't roll it out for general use. A few thousand dollars is a cheap insurance policy for some companies.

There is no doubt that whoever is solely using BES has made the determination that BES is best for their environment. The question is how many other people feel that Good is the next best choice in US as an alternative. What other choices do we have that is commonly available is US (other than Visto or maybe Seven)?

[Berry One]

Originally Posted by aau007

So you suggest to stick it out with RIM. If the unfortunate ever happens, just tell your users to give you a few weeks to find an alternative while they are out?

What is your suggestion? Dump blackberries now, invest time and money into alternative, just to watch your money wasted for nothing?

Yes, I suggest to stick with RIM until case is closed, of course as a sane IT person having researched all alternatives available. But not much more.

You turn around and tell them they are crazy because RIM will never get shutdown and setting up contingency plan is idiotic.

I never tell my boss she is wrong.

Good is certainly a consideration by many. Keep the bashing up on Good while not providing other suggestions are not very helpful to your fellow forum members.

If quoting Good's last year press release is bashing them, well- they brought it on by themselves.

What should I praise Good for? Look, it is February 7, there is still nothing on www.good.com about their patent problem. Is this how they deal with all other their problems- just pretend they do not exist? Is this how they will deal with your problems with their systems?

Telling us to go tell our boss not to worry is also not helpful unless some members here are willing to stick their head out to our bosses to gaurantee RIM's continual service.

You can not guarantee GoodLink continual service too, so what is your point?

Mind you, Good is privately held company that can close their shop any day if this is the will of its owners. They are in no obligation to you or to anyone else. It is their private business, so you do live under false sense of security if you think Good will run their service forever and ever no matter what.

If my boss wants a contingency plan, I do my job to dig around and find the best alternatives for the proposal.

Good idea. Me, personally, I would think twice before selecting Good as the best alternative. All their business is and was to be a copycat of RIM. They will be victims of same patent trolls that target RIM and Microsoft, just because their technology is so similar.

I, personally, would go with Microsoft or with some open-source implementation.
Microsoft- because they can afford to pay 20 billions to stay in business, if they want to. Also, because they are public company with accountability.
Open source- because community will support opensource forever and ever.

Going with Good or Visto is a short-term solution, because opensource will kill them both; and because they are not public companies with open books you'll never know when they are dead (financially) or when they decide to close doors.