I can finally share a lot more information about our support for ActiveSync in our replacement for GroupWise Mobile Server. To get you up to date with a lot of the direction I urge you to first read my prior blogs on the subject:

GroupWise and Nokia Intellisync

GroupWise Mobility Update

Replacement for GroupWise Mobile Server, and more

To summarize, we are creating a new technology, separate from GroupWise and Teaming, which will synchronize data between any of the connected applications. Once of the connectors will be an ActiveSync connector, to support ActiveSync enabled devices. Another connector will be for GroupWise.

These blogs set the scene for where we are today, so let me now tell you about release plans, feature set and supported devices. Let’s start with feature set – ActiveSync is a protocol and data access method and, as such, we are limited to things that we can support to whatever ActiveSync supports. At a high level that is synchronization of Email, Calendar items and Contacts. ActiveSync does not support tasks, so GroupWise tasks will not sync to devices out of the box – though there is a way that you can make them, which we will cover at a later date.

Synchronization Features

2-way email sync

Delete items

Reply

Forward

Smart forward

Attachment support

Mark (un)read

Sync content of all folders

Sync calendars

Accept and decline appointments

Send appointments

Contact sync

Support all contact fields

Sync contact photos

Search system address book

Kill pill

This list is not exhaustive, and there are even more features coming in subsequent releases around some of the additional things that ActiveSync supports.

The technology works by syncing data from the device to the central cache server, which in turn syncs it to the other connected applications. These applications then do whatever needs to be done with that data – and vice versa.

Schedule

Our first milestone is to roll this out internally. We are working on defining the schedule for that with our IS&T department. I get lots of mail from people internally who volunteer themselves to be beta testers, so I know that it is as well anticipated internally as it is in our customer base.

We will then release the product to a closed beta group. We anticipate doing this in October, which is right around the corner. If you have not already applied to be a beta site do so at www.novell.com/beta. We normally take about 50 sites into a closed beta group and I can tell you that we have far more applicants than that already – so don’t be too upset if you don’t get in.

Whilst the closed beta program is running we also plan to release a feature limited technical preview publically. It will likely synchronize contacts and the contents of calendars only. The reason it is limited is that we need more bake time on some of the other features – we do not want to release unstable code to the broader public, but feel very confident that contacts and calendar sync will be robust. The goal is to release the technical preview in November

We will then refresh the closed beta program with the final features, around administration and bug fixes, though schedule will be determined by the amount and types of issues that get reported.

Finally, we expect to release the connector in late January and then move our engineers onto the next revision, as well as GroupWise 8 SP2 and GroupWise “Windermere”

Entitlements

We do not plan to change the entitlement for mobility support much from what it is today – in fact we will make it a little more broad. The goal is that anyone on GroupWise and/or Teaming maintenance will be entitled to four products – the sync engine from “Gradenko”, the Teaming connector when it ships, the GroupWise connector and the ActiveSync connector. This is similar to the entitlement today, where anyone on GroupWise maintenance gets GMS.

Supported devices

I am getting questions on what devices are supported, and the short answer is “any device that supports ActiveSync”. Our solution means that we are not installing a client on the device, we will leverage what is on there already, as long as the communications protocol is ActiveSync. To spell out a couple of the devices and/or manufacturers that ship, or have shipped native ActiveSync devices or platforms:

iPhone/iTouch

Windows Mobile devices (which many vendors ship on their devices) – Like HTC, Samsung etc. Microsoft have a site for WMS devices

Palm Pre and Palm Treo

Nokia E and N series devices

There is also an ActiveSync licensee site

In addition to this list there are ActiveSync client downloads available for many other devices, though Novell will not provide those clients. These include Android, UIQ and Blackberry. If your phone is not listed it likely resides somewhere under one of the categories above, so check your docs for specific mention of either ActiveSync or Exchange support.

GroupWise Mobile Server

Once the ActiveSync solution ships what happens with the current GMS? We have support from Nokia for GMS until the end of 2010, though that support is limited to critical bug fixes and security updates only – it does not include new device support. The time between the ActiveSync connector shipping and GMS support ending is about a year, and we expect that most of our customers are going to be able to move over in that year. We do not plan on a migration tool at this point, as the master data repository is the GroupWise store – we do no need to migrate the data at all. It is likely going to be necessary to touch some of the devices, to remove the old Intellisync software and replace it with the factory ActiveSync software – application management is not part of the ActiveSync protocol, so this will either need to be done manually, or with some form of Mobile Device Management software.

That’s it for now, though we will continue to keep you up to date as things progress