Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Truth Behind ActiveSync & Enterprise Licensing

Hello All,

Sadly I see this happen more often than it should. A potential client was lied to by another IT vendor's sales team. They claimed that for "iPhone ActiveSync remote wipe functionality, the Enterprise Client Access Licenses were required for Exchange Server 2010". Turns out this is a lie! Oops... caught by me.

The Enterprise Client Access License (aka eCAL) does not relate/control remote wipe for ActiveSync. The eCAL adds the following control for ActiveSync clients that support these features. Both server and client side need to support these ActiveSync policies for them to be in effect. Make sure you read that last sentence twice. I've put that in bold for you. This is critical in your understanding of ActiveSync device features. Pretty much each device that includes ActiveSync offers varying levels of ActiveSync capabilities.

iPhone support remote wipe (they also offer a limited capabilities for ActiveSync). The available ActiveSync functionality on the iPhone is documented here.

List of Exchange Server 2010 Enterprise Client Access License (eCAL) Functionality Abilities (screen-shots below)
Allow removable storage
Allow camera
Allow Wi-FI
Allow infrared
Allow Internet sharing from the device
Allow remote desktop from the device
Allow synchronization from a desktop
Allow Bluetooth
Allow browser
Allow consumer mail
Allow unsigned applications
Allow unsigned installation packages

-Ben



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