iPhone and Public Folders

[Spinnaay]

Hi everyone,

Our company is looking to switch from a local Exchange 2003 box to a hosted 2007 system or potentially Zimbra. We will then ditch our BB's and the BES and go for iPhones

With regards to Exchange and iPhones... I know that the mail is nicely synced via active sync as well as your personal contacts and calenders.

Now what about company wide calenders and contacts. This is where public folders come in.

We are looking at Rackspace to host our exchange but they couldn't help me out at all RE: public folders. It seems there is no one at that company who can help me out with public folders and syncing to the iPhone.

so what I am wondering is if someone can give me an overview of how to use public folders for contacts and calender while applying a very complicated array of permissions and then sync this all down to iPhones.

If there is a better solution than exchange or public folders then please let me know.

Thanks

Thom

 

[VenusianSky]

I could be wrong, but I don't think you can sync public folders to any mobile device using Activesync.

Microsoft has stated many times that they are doing away with public folders. At an event I attended for Exchange 2007, they stated that the next version, Exchange 2010, will be the last version that supports public folders. I am not confident that they will hold up to this though, but I do believe they will drop public folders in a future release.

Sharepoint is the product that replaces the functionality of public folders. It supports public Calendars and Contacts. It is much more robust than Exchange public folders. You can set granular permissions on pretty much everything in a Sharepoint application (site). A s a bonus, every Sharepoint "site" includes a mobile version of the site when it is setup.

 

[Interstella5555]

Get your company to use dropbox...or have a corporate app developed.

 

[Spinnaay]

So basically don't use public folders??

I'll look in to drop box now.

 

[Spinnaay]

How would drop box work for contacts? It can only store files? Or am I missing something?

Thanks