Remote access advances with new Microsoft server features

Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) and Mobilesys (www.mobilesys.com) last week announced new initiatives to further improve remote access tools for mobile employees.

At MEC 2001 in Orlando the companies announced their alliance to deliver information to mobile users using Microsoft’s Mobile Information Server and MobileSys’ Globility Access solution. The combination allows companies to securely push Outlook and other data housed on Microsoft enterprise servers to mobile employees through a single network management system nearly all wireless devices, regardless of carrier or protocol.

MobileSys has relationships with hundreds of wireless carriers worldwide, which enables the company to act as a clearinghouse for businesses with employees using multiple carriers. The company’s Globility Access solution connects employees using various networks to corporate databases via its MobileSys network, a private wireless data network with a global reach.

“We’ve made remote e-mail easy, but enterprise clients still must manage diverse network connections. MobileSys is a one-stop network solution,” said Catherine Stolz, MobileSys vice president of marketing. “We serve as the link between Mobile Information Server and Enterprise Edition customers who can connect to us. Or we can use a direct line connection to offer a single point of access.”

In addition to the deal with MobileSys, Microsoft last week announced the 2002 version of its Mobile Information Server, which will be commercially by January or February of next year, according to David Rasmussen, Microsoft lead product manager, MIS.

The new version includes an active synch function that allows devices such as the Pocket PC and Smartphone (formerly Stinger) to sync Exchange server data automatically. Previously, MIS synchronization was far more complex. MIS 2002 synchronizes corporate server data automatically for users. Additionally, preferences can be provisioned at the server, desktop or device level by individual users or IT managers.

Another new function allows the forwarding of attachments, or large e-mails without reading the actual document. For example, a manager using this function can forward a document from his or her mobile device to a colleague for approval without taking the time to actually download that document. Another function strips all but the most recent message from lengthy e-mail message threads, additionally reducing download and transmission times for mobile users. MIS 2002 now supports SSL encryption, in addition to IP-sec.

“The active synch improvements were fairly obvious,” Rasmussen said. “However, other improvements came from users and were not so obvious at first.”