contrary to the postings on various blogs, the iphone has not “gone corporate”. yes, at&t is offering the iphone to business users. that’s not “corporate”, however.
in order for the iphone to “go corporate” (i hate that term), apple needs to update the software on the iphone to include support for synchronizing — seamlessly and effortlessly — with corporate email and calendar systems. in other words, exchange.
love it or hate it, exchange rules the corporate world. it’s an unfortunate fact of life. corporate i.t. departments often operate under policies that dictate what types of mobile devices may or may not be permitted, based on various factors (not the least of which is security).
i work in i.t. at an educational institution. i’m also responsible for keeping our blackberry enterprise server running. we run exchange. there have been times, in the past, where we allowed certain folks to use non-blackberry mobile devices for synchronizing their mail and calendar. now that we have bes running, no new non-blackberry devices are permitted (the aforementioned folks were “grandfathered” in, and get to keep using their existing devices.)
in my experience there is nothing better than blackberries and bes from a support and administration standpoint. when (approved) users get a blackberry, we (i.t.) don’t even need to see or speak to them. we generate an activation code, e-mail it to them and refer them to the owner’s manual in order to get it activated. let me tell you that i deal with some very non-technical folks, and we’ve not had a problem yet.
as i.t., we’re also responsible for security. i used to have nightmares about what might happen if one of our users lost their mobile devices. not anymore. when a user loses their blackberry, they know that it is extremely important to notify i.t. immediately. within a few minutes, we remotely lock, wipe, and disable their blackberry. if they happen to find it, we go through the 10-minute activation process again and they’re good to go.
after a night of heavy driving at a political party a little over a month ago, we got home and i realized i didn’t have my blackberry. i went into the home office, vpn‘d in to work, rdp‘d to the bes and wiped and disabled my handheld. problem solved. (i found it in my girlfriend’s car the next morning, by the way.)
what was i saying? oh yes, the iphone.
don’t get me wrong — i like the iphone. it’s quite sweet. i’d like to have one of my own; it’d compliment my new macbook nicely (i’m a recent “mac convert”). until the iphone supports things like remote administration/wiping/disabling, forcing i.t. policies, and end-to-end encryption, i can’t use one.
fix those problems and license activesync (imap? “corporate”? c’mon now) and then we might be able to call the iphone “corporate”.
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5 comments ↓
Good post. I agree with you that the iPhone has a long way to go before it can make any serious inroads in corporate environments. I’ve also done corporate IT. Not as big a Blackberry fan as you, mainly because in large environments the BES servers I’ve seen have always been real flaky. But … iPhone still needs several things to be taken seriously in the corporate space: – Better security model (they’re starting on this now with apps no longer running as root) – Apple-provided or 3rd party solutions to remote wipe lost or stolen devices – Ability to encrypt data on the device – Real Exchange support One thing I would say though, is that in many big environments I’ve seen, it’s the top brass who go get a shiny new toy and then insist that you support it. And there aren’t many that are shinier than the iPhone :)
hey patrick,
prior to our bes deployment i’d heard some horror stories. we’ve been very lucky, i suppose, in that we’ve not had any issues (probably just jinxed myself!).
fortunately for us (i.t.), we have well-defined policies that damn near take an act of god to change. we’ve had a person occasionally ask about whether they can use <insert latest cool device here> with our e-mail systems and a “nope, won’t work” response has sufficed.
we’ve also been lucky in that our top brass are all big fans of the blackberry (makes ‘em feel important, i think) so there’s not been any demand from high up for anything else.
thanks for stopping by, even though i’m not an iphone owner i quite enjoy your site.
I’m glad to hear BES deployment is smooth, and hope you did not jinx it! :) It’s been a few years since I was in an environment where we had them, they may well have improved a lot. Having clear policies to go by (and execs that are willing to embrace and support them) is great stuff. I spent years in very large environments, now I do consulting with small & medium biz, where its is much harder to adhere strictly to policies in many cases. Anyway, Blackberries do seem great from a support perspective. I hope the iPhone can get some of the security things done, so that it can be considered, as it’s just such a rich platform. Oh, and I’m very glad to hear you like the site. I’ve definitely bookmarked yours now …
i’ve done some consulting for smb’s so i know what it’s like to not have firm policies. like you, i’m hoping the iphone will progress quickly (we know it will, it’s just a matter of time). i’m hoping everything will be in place the next time i’m eligible for a stipend for a new device but i’m not confident that’ll happen!
the only thing better than getting to play with the new toys is having $work foot the bill while you do it!
so, um, i guess the iphone is now going corporate =)
and, yes, i want one and will probably get one (now that it supports exchange mail). it will likely replace my blackberry.
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