RIM plans to make a closed beta of the new hosted BES available some time this year, with general availability expected in late 2011.

Cloud-based BES won't likely replace the current BES, which organizations host on their own corporate servers, at least for the time being, because it does not offer the same security safeguards available in full BES. But Taylor sees many companies running a "hybrid environment" of cloud-based BES and older on-premise BES.

Additional information on RIM's hosted BES offerings should be available shortly .

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