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As I understand anything I've read about Windows 7 phone it is possible to sync with an Exchange server, but it will sync to your Windows Live Account. That is something I definitely don't want since I don't want my business mails anywhere 'online'. And as I understand Android it's the same with a Google Account.

My Question is: am I right? Or have I overlooked something, is there a possibility to sync my phone with my Exchange Server at work (in a local net or over a VPN tunnel)?

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3 Answers

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With both Win 7 and Android, you normally want to associate an online account with it (MSN/Windows Live/Passport for Windows Phone, Gmail/Google Apps/Google Account for Google) so that the phone's apps, settings, etc are backed up to the cloud, Appstore/Market downloads are associated with this account, etc. That is not compulsory but is advised, and the account you use doesn't have to have a mailbox, etc associated with it at all.

In addition they can both connect to Exchange servers via Exchange Active Sync for mail/calendar/contacts. They both support a sub-set of the Exchange security policies (password, lock, remote wipe, etc).

Don't know about Win Phone 7, but Android does have the capability to connect to networks via VPN, but it does depend on the make and type of VPN you have.

A lot of the above assumes that your phone is running Android 2.1 or higher.

Edit with additional info:

To create a Windows Live account with no mailbox, just go to http://www.passport.net click Sign Up and use your existing email as the login. To create a Google account with no mailbox, go to http://www.google.com click Sign In, click Create One For Free and fill it in using your existing email account.

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I have Windows Phone 7 and use it to sync with work email, but also all my personal email accounts. Windows Phone will not cross-sync any accounts. It will display things in consolidated views, but it will not copy your contacts from one account to another, emails from one account to another, etc. The OS is very explicit about where things get sent to. Default storage for newly created contacts and calendar entries go to Windows Live, but you can select where if you want it to go somewhere else. But none of your business data will end up online. – sidran32 Aug 23 '11 at 3:26
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up vote 3 down vote

the Android OS supports ActiveSync, and can natively sync with an exchange server. One caveat that is starting to affect us, is that Android does not support Device Encryption that is sometimes required by Exchange. (although it does support remote wipe)

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up vote 0 down vote

If your Exchange implementation supports Active Sync (a.k.a. "Outlook Anywhere") you can -- I do this on my Droid Eris running 2.1. It works well, most of the time. That said, if your Exchange server doesn't have a valid SSL cert, you could run into problems, particularly on versions of Android below 2.2.

On my Eris, I use the "No Lock" app to override the screen-lock policy pushed out from the server. I don't believe you can do this on Froyo.

Cheers!

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