Abstract:
A federated mobile messaging appliance can be provided. The appliance can include a hidden partition including different images of a mobile messaging system each corresponding to a particular e-mail server type. The appliance also can include federated mobile messaging configuration logic. The logic can include program code enabled to identify an e-mail server type for a coupled e-mail server, to select one of the images to be revealed based upon the identified e-mail server type, and to configure and activate a corresponding mobile messaging system in the selected one of the images in the hidden partition for interoperation with the coupled e-mail server.

Description:
REFERENCE TO CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS FOR PATENT 
       [0001]    The present application is related to the following co-assigned U.S. patent applications, which are expressly incorporated by reference herein: 
         [0002]    U.S. application Ser. No. ______, entitled “SUBSCRIBER AUDIT FEATURE FOR MOBILE MESSAGING” (docket no 7339-013U)), filed on May 30, 2008. 
         [0003]    U.S. application Ser. No. ______, entitled “BACKUP AND RESTORE FEATURE FOR MOBILE MESSAGING” (docket no 7339-014U)), filed on May 30, 2008. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0005]    The present invention relates to the field of mobile messaging and more particularly to installing a mobile messaging system for delivering messages over the air to mobile messaging clients. 
         [0006]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0007]    Electronic messaging represents the single most useful task accomplished over wide-scale computer communications networks. Some argue that in the absence of electronic messaging, the Internet would have amounted to little more than a science experiment. Today, electronic messaging seems to have replaced the ubiquitous telephone and fax machine for the most routine of interpersonal communications. As such, a variety of electronic messaging systems have arisen which range from real-time instant messaging systems and wireless text pagers to asynchronous electronic mail systems. 
         [0008]    Electronic mail, a form of electronic messaging referred to in the art as e-mail, has proven to be the most widely used computing application globally. Though e-mail has been a commercial staple for several decades, due to the explosive popularity and global connectivity of the Internet, e-mail has become the preferred mode of communications, regardless of the geographic separation of communicating parties. Today, more e-mails are processed in a single hour than phone calls. Clearly, e-mail as a mode of communications has been postured to replace all other modes of communications, save for voice telephony. 
         [0009]    E-mail has become so significant in the daily conduct of business that enterprise users no longer can tolerate e-mail access exclusively from within the enterprise. Rather, end users demand access even from remote locations, while traveling or at home. So reliant, in fact, end users have become upon e-mail, that end users no longer demonstrate the patience to access e-mail from traditional computing devices. Rather, e-mail users in the enterprise now demand access to e-mail 24/7/365 over wireless mobile communications devices like cellular telephones and personal digital assistants. Extreme compulsions to check e-mail constantly in a wireless device now have been diagnosed as a form of an obsessive-compulsive disorder. 
         [0010]    Addressing the demand for wireless access to e-mail, traditional wireless carriers support both pull and push oriented e-mail messaging to wireless devices. One particularly successful mobile messaging technology—the Blackberry™ wireless messaging technology—provides over the air, push based messaging to a sophisticated end user wireless device, known as in the marketplace as the “Blackberry”. Alternatives to the Blackberry™ technology include the Good Technology messaging server and more recently, the Lotus Traveler™ service. In each of these mobile messaging technologies, a mobile messaging server is configured within the enterprise to cooperate with an e-mail server to deliver e-mail messages to subscribing wireless devices. 
         [0011]    Generally, the mobile messaging server monitors the e-mail inbox in the e-mail server for each subscriber and upon detecting an inbound e-mail message, the mobile messaging server routes a copy to a corresponding wireless device over a wireless communications network. Conversely, e-mail messages composed within the wireless device of a subscriber are routed to the mobile messaging server which can place a copy within the e-mail server in the sent items folder for the subscriber. In this way, the subscriber maintains full access to e-mail (and even calendaring and contact information) irrespective of the location of the subscriber. 
         [0012]    As it will be apparent, properly configuring the mobile messaging server is paramount to the successful performance of a mobile messaging system. Configuring a mobile messaging server for interoperation in the enterprise, however, is no small feat and requires substantial expertise. Configuration issues to be considered include the type of e-mail server, the network topology in which the mobile messaging server is to be deployed and components with whom the mobile messaging server is to interact, the number of subscribers to the mobile messaging service and the types of wireless devices used by the subscribers. So complicated has the configuration process become, that only the most sophisticated and well-funded organization can afford to deploy a mobile messaging service. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0013]    Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to mobile messaging server configuration and deployment and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for the federated configuration and deployment of a mobile messaging system. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for the federated configuration and deployment of a mobile messaging system can be provided for a federated mobile messaging appliance. The method can include locating an e-mail server in a network and identifying an e-mail server type for the located e-mail server. 
         [0014]    The method also can include selecting an image from a hidden partition in the appliance amongst multiple images within the hidden partition in the appliance. Specifically, the hidden partition can store multiple images of a mobile messaging system each corresponding to a particular e-mail server type. Finally, the method can include configuring and activating the selected image of the mobile messaging system in the hidden partition. 
         [0015]    In one aspect of the embodiment, selecting an image from the hidden partition in the appliance amongst multiple images within the hidden partition in the appliance can include selecting an image amongst multiple images within the hidden partition in the appliance wherein the hidden partition has stored thereon multiple images of a mobile messaging system each corresponding to the identified e-mail server type and also an identified e-mail server version. In another aspect of the embodiment, configuring the image of the mobile messaging system can include establishing mobile messaging system rules for the selected image of the mobile messaging system. Finally, in yet another aspect of the embodiment, configuring the image of the mobile messaging system also can include rendering a Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) checklist to ensure sufficient hardening of the mobile messaging system to comply with STIG configuration standards. 
         [0016]    In another embodiment of the invention, a federated mobile messaging appliance can be provided. The appliance can include multiple images of a mobile messaging system stored within a hidden partition. Each image of the mobile messaging system can correspond to a particular e-mail server type. The appliance also can include federated mobile messaging configuration logic. The logic can include program code enabled to identify an e-mail server type for a coupled e-mail server, to select one of the images in the hidden partition to be activated based upon the identified e-mail server type, and to configure and activate the corresponding mobile messaging system in the selected one of the images in the hidden partition for interoperation with the coupled e-mail server. 
         [0017]    Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspects of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0018]    The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein: 
           [0019]      FIG. 1  is a schematic illustration of a mobile messaging system configured with a federated mobile messaging appliance; 
           [0020]      FIG. 2  is a flow chart illustrating a process for the federated configuration and deployment of a mobile messaging system. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0021]    Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for the federated configuration and deployment of a mobile messaging system. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a mobile messaging appliance can be configured with a hidden partition in fixed storage storing different, pre-configured images of a mobile messaging server, each image corresponding to a different type of e-mail server. During deployment, the type of e-mail server intended to interoperate with the mobile messaging server can be determined. Thereafter, only the pre-configured image of the mobile messaging corresponding to the detected type of e-mail server can be installed while remaining ones of the pre-configured images can remain dormant in the hidden partition or can be removed from the appliance. Once installed, the pre-configured image corresponding to the detected type of e-mail server can be deployed to interoperate with the detected e-mail server to provide a mobile messaging service to subscribers. 
         [0022]    In more particular illustration,  FIG. 1  schematically shows a mobile messaging system configured with a federated mobile messaging appliance. The system can include a mail server  110  configured for communicative coupling through optional firewall  120  over computer communications network  160  to different e-mail clients  100  each hosted in a corresponding host computing device  190 . The system also can include a federated mobile messaging appliance  150 . The federated mobile messaging appliance  150  can include one or more hidden partitions  130  in fixed storage. The hidden partition  130  can include different images  140 A,  140 B,  140 N of a mobile messaging system each corresponding to a different type of e-mail server. The appliance  150  also can include federated mobile messaging configuration and deployment logic  200 . 
         [0023]    The federated mobile messaging configuration and deployment logic  200  can include program code enabled to determine any combination of an e-mail server type, version or service level for the e-mail server  110 . The program code also can be enabled to activate a given one of the images  140 A,  140 B,  140 N of a mobile messaging system intended for use with the determined e-mail server type and version for the e-mail server  110 , while the remaining ones of the partitions  130  can remain hidden from view. The program code yet further can be enabled to configure the corresponding one of the images  140 A,  140 B,  140 N of the mobile messaging system for operation and to deploy the corresponding one of the images  140 A,  140 B,  140 N of the mobile messaging system to deliver e-mail messages to wireless devices  180  over wireless network  170 . In particular, a script of registry settings can be retrieved for the corresponding one of the images  140 A,  140 B,  140 N and the registry settings can be applied to any of the e-mail server  110 , the underlying operating system and the corresponding one of the images  140 A,  140 B,  140 N. 
         [0024]    In further illustration of the operation of the federated mobile messaging configuration logic  200 ,  FIG. 2  is a flow chart illustrating a process for the federated configuration and deployment of a mobile messaging system. The process can begin in block  210  with the communicative connection of the appliance into a network coupled to an e-mail server. In block  220 , the e-mail server in the network can be located and in block  230 , a version and type of the e-mail server can be determined by way of an call to an exposed method in an application programming interface (API) to the e-mail server. 
         [0025]    In block  240 , an image of the mobile messaging system residing in a hidden partition in the appliance and associated with the e-mail server type and version can be selected. Thereafter, in block  250  the selected image can be activated (while other images in the hidden partition in the appliance can remain dormant). Once an image has been selected and activated, in block  260  the selected image of the mobile messaging system can be configured for deployment in the network. For example, in block  260 A one or more mobile messaging system rules can be established such as the way in which the mobile messaging system provides wireless delivery of a message received in the e-mail server. Additionally, in block  260 B, a STIG checklist can be rendered to ensure the sufficient hardening of the mobile messaging system to comply with STIG configuration standards. Finally, in block  270 , once configured the mobile messaging system can be launched for operation in conjunction with the e-mail server. 
         [0026]    Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. 
         [0027]    For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD. 
         [0028]    A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.