News
Issue #2002 - 39 (October 2002)
(Updated Oct. 15, 2002)

INFRASTRUCTURE, PRODUCTS & SERVICES

NetIQ & RIM to Deliver Advanced Management Tools for Blackberry Platform

Waterloo, ON and San Jose, CA - Research In Motion Limited (RIM) and NetIQ Corp., a leading provider of Systems Management, Security Management and Web Analytics solutions, today announced that the companies have expanded their relationship to deliver advanced management tools for the new BlackBerry Enterprise Server v3.5 for Microsoft® Exchange. In addition, NetIQ has joined RIM's BlackBerry ISV Alliance Program as a premier member.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server v3.5 for Microsoft Exchange provides new enhancements including secure access to corporate data beyond email, simplified software deployment for desktop and handheld software and support for wireless IT policies and commands.

"We have deployed the BlackBerry wireless solution as an enhanced service because it enables our customers to have secure, anytime, anywhere access to their corporate email through their USA.NET® hosted Microsoft Exchange 2000 account," said Steve O'Brien, Director of Operations at USA.NET. "To help ensure we are meeting USA.NET's high standards for reliability and availability, we are using AppManager from NetIQ as it provides a powerful solution that allows us to easily monitor the performance of our BlackBerry Enterprise Server from a central console 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

AppManager® for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (supporting BlackBerry Enterprise Server v3.5 for Microsoft Exchange environments) will provide a comprehensive solution for advanced management, diagnostics and analytics of the performance and availability of BlackBerry systems, applications and server infrastructure. IT departments will be able to pinpoint, correlate and correct the performance and availability of their BlackBerry deployments and related Windows systems and applications through one central, easy-to-use console.

"NetIQ and RIM have been working together to deliver advanced performance management and diagnostic tools for BlackBerry Enterprise Server," said Rick Schell, general manager of the Performance and Availability Management business unit and corporate chief technology officer at NetIQ. "We continue to expand our relationships to offer management tools that integrate with platforms from leading companies like RIM as well as leading operations management environments, foremost of which is Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 (MOM), to provide our customers with innovative systems management tools."

"BlackBerry has become a popular wireless enterprise platform because it enables secure, always-on and integrated access to email and corporate data," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. "The combination of BlackBerry Enterprise Server v3.5 and NetIQ's AppManager solution provide IT departments with the tools required to easily monitor, diagnose and manage their BlackBerry corporate assets."

Pricing and Availability
AppManager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (supporting BlackBerry Enterprise Server v2.5 for Microsoft Exchange environments) is currently available from NetIQ at a licensing fee of $2,400 per server. AppManager support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server v3.5 will be available in beta trials by the end of the year and is expected to be generally available in the first quarter of 2003.

About NetIQ
Founded in 1995, NetIQ Corp. is a provider of Systems Management, Security Management and Web Analytics solutions. 

About Research In Motion (RIM)
Research In Motion Limited is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless devices including server software. 

For more information: http://www.rim.net  and http://www.netiq.com

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory:  NetIQ's App Manager enhances Blackberry Enterprise Server with systems management functions that did not exist before. Now it will acquire monitoring and diagnostic functionality that is crucial to a server operation. NetIQ became famous for its WebTrends software that monitors web server stats. You need similar metrics in Microsoft exchange environment.  NETIQ will utilize this expertise built already in AppAnalyzer for Exchange to build corresponding system management function in the Blackberry Server.

Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures.  All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners.