What should you do? Start by talking with your users, whether you give them BlackBerries or not. Find out who has them. Then explain the situation and set expectations: There won't be a sudden, unexpected shutdown; there probably will be a patch, and after that, their BlackBerries may not work exactly the same; you'll stay on top of the situation and help users as much as you can.

Next, prepare to follow up on that talk. Free up resources to help users apply the patches sometime during March. Find out which providers you'll have to get patches from. Build a patching plan. And make sure you have more than one person tracking BlackBerry news, so you'll know when that plan has to kick in.

Create a contingency plan in case BlackBerry service is suddenly cut off. That's more likely to happen because of a tornado or a technical glitch than because of a court order, but you want to be ready anyway.

Finally, start looking at BlackBerry alternatives -- just in case. Or rather, get users looking for those alternatives. That'll save you research time, give you useful feedback and start softening users up to the possibility that they may have to change devices, much as they hate that idea.

Their heads won't explode. They'll be happy to help, and glad to hear that the doomsday news is overblown. And, just maybe, they'll remember how useful IT can be the next time it looks like their world is about to end.