Slowly but surely, my users have been migrating from their s to iPhones. I'm happy to help them make the transition. iPhones are simply easier to integrate with Microsoft Exchange.

Supporting BlackBerrys in an Exchange environment involves one of two scenarios. The simple but kludgey method involves configuring them to pull e-mail from the Outlook Web Access (OWA) server. This requires no admin assistance, but e-mail delivery is delayed and the connection can break in a server outage.

The alternative is to use a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES). This requires an enterprise data plan for each device which can cost an additional $10-$15 dollars per month. It also involves additional fees for both server and client licenses. The advantage of using a BES is that it provides a huge amount of granularity in controlling the policies of RIM mobile devices.

This is great for large organizations with strict policies and large budgets, but frustrating for smaller businesses that just want to enable their employees' connectivity.

For businesses running Exchange, integrating the iPhone is much simpler. ActiveSync on the iPhone is natively supported on both Exchange Server 2003 and 2007. If you are already running an OWA server configured to use SSL with port 443 open on your firewall, you have already done the hard part.