We know that the future for RIM (if there is going to be one) will hinge on the company’s upcoming release of the new BlackBerry 10 devices. The issue is that they will not be compatible with the current BlackBerry Enterprise Servers. BlackBerry 10 devices will have to connect to the BES 10 servers; and in a strange first for RIM, BES 10 will not be compatible with previous devices running earlier versions of the BlackBerry OS.

The news isn’t sitting well with many IT shops, who if they would adopt the new BlackBerry 10 devices would be forced to run both the old BES server and the new BES 10 server. This is something that most IT folks are going to struggle with, considering that many IT shops are already looking at Apple iOS devices and Android devices for use in their enterprise with some good control to handle secure messaging and still have ultimate control over the message/Email data on the device.

The best news, if there is any, is that RIM is planning a unified management console that will allow IT folks to manage both the legacy BES and the new BES servers from the same console. The bottom line, however, is that it isn’t good news for RIM.