Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.1.5 on Domino 8.0 webcast Q&A

Just attended a webcast today on the new Service Pack 5 to Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.1, which will be adding support for Domino 8.0. It was good to hear Valerie Wang from RIM talk about the new features, and as every Product Manager will do, she did not commit to any release dates, but said "it's a matter of weeks, not months." Hmm... doesn't that sound familiar? ;-)

So anyways, BES 4.1.5 now will add support for Windows 2003 64-bit. This led me to a few questions which Valerie answered in the Q&A session after her presentation:

1. Will BES 4.1.5 support Lotus Domino 8.0.1 on Windows 2003 Server 64-bit?
   No. BES 4.1.5 will only support 32-bit Domino 8.0 and 7.0.3. Support for Lotus Domino 8.0.1 will come in a future service pack.
   
2. Is BES 4.1.5 64-bit enabled?
   No, it still runs as a 32-bit app. Work is being done to port BES to 64-bit, but nothing is ready to be discussed in public yet. Valerie mentioned that if ISVs/Customers/anyone would like to get further details on this, then this can be discussed individually via a signed NDA.
3. How many simultaneous users will BES 4.1.5 support on 64-bit Windows 2003 Server?
   RIM is still estimating around 2,000 users/BES server, but work is being done to improve performance further.

Blackberry Enterprise Server Scalability
Also another good tip on Blackberry Enterprise Server scalability given by the folks at RIM:

• To increase scalability, decrease the amount of mail servers your BES talks to - the more mail servers you point your BES servers to, the less it will scale.
  
• Keep your BES server as close to your mail servers as possible - try to keep your corporate/headquarter mail servers on the same datacenter as your BES server. The fewer network hops, the better.

Interesting to hear Valerie mention how few people at Lotusphere were aware of these 2 performance/scalability tips.

The PDF slides from the webcast are available for download.