Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of the BlackBerry phones have started the beta testing phase of BlackBerry Cloud Services where devices can managed remotely with access to Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 also available as a service.

BlackBerry Users Now Have Access To Microsoft’s Office 365 Cloud Service

This is good news for BlackBerry users who also use Microsoft Office and/or Office 365. RIM has started the beta testing of BlackBerry services for its users. This allows the users to manage their BlackBerry devices from the cloud and also access Microsoft’s cloud-based web-suite of productivity tools called Office 365.

Office 365 is similar to Google Docs. It is a collection of online tools that are the cloud-based counterparts of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other features.

BlackBerry Now Connects With Microsoft Exchange In 30 Different Countries

The new service now supports connection and syncing to Microsoft Exchange’s email, calendar and organizer data. For those who are subscribed to Office 365’s Midsized Business and Enterprise plans, this service would be available for free. The service works with both BlackBerry business and consumer plans.

According to RIM, the new BlackBerry Cloud Service makes it easier for businesses and governments to extend Office 365’s reach on to the BlackBerries. Most of these places have a huger number of employees using BlackBerry and they also depend on Office 365 for their operations. A marriage between the two services would thus find a lot of takers.

The service just opened in its beta state and it will take some time to see a full commercial launch. RIM worked closely with Microsoft in order to build this. They had selected some targeted clients for pre-access to the service. The beta is an open one and accessible to all BlackBerry subscribers in the countries where it is available.

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