Existing users, 
What’s holding the iPhone back in enterprise
Posted 21 February 2008 @ 12pm in News
While we don’t have any specific data on the success of iPhone penetration in the enterprise sector (we suspect it’s deeper than most analysts estimate), there are clearly some bottlenecks to broader adoption. Easy pickings include a lack of full support for Exchange (though third-party solutions have materialized) and malfunctioning push mail.
We recently spoke with Ahmed Datoo of Zenprise, a developer of software that monitors and troubleshoots services for the current enterprise-smartphone king, the Blackberry. He offered the following iPhone qualms:
The iPhone doesn’t allow for over the air (OTA) management. Datoo says: “These capabilities are critical for ensuring enterprise security.” Because of the lack of conspicuous over-the-air management tools, you can’t remote-wipe the device in case device gets lost or stolen, enforce passwords on all devices, or provision and configure devices wirelessly. Administrators also can’t disable features that are considered security risks like Bluetooth, the camera, and SMS.
Datoo also said that the iPhone’s reliance on iTunes for synchronization and installation of software is a detractor for enterprise. “Many enterprise restrict installation of iTunes on desktop,” he said.
Also critical to future enterprise success, per Datoo, is the addition of auditing capabilities to see phone usage, SMS utilization, etc.
What’s your take? Are you using the iPhone in an enterprise environment? If so, what’s hampering? If not, what’s missing? Let us know.
Print This Post
2 Comments
Posted by joelmcintosh
21 February 2008 @ 1pm
Hmmm. Let’s see. For two weeks my girlfriend’s Blackberry has been unable to send mail. After two trips to the IT department last week, she could send mail for half a day before the thing started failing again. In the last two weeks, the Blackberry network has failed twice. For all practical purposes, their entire enterprise e-mail system was down for those periods.
Yesterday, she had to make a trip down to the IT department (again). They wiped her Blackberry and tried to reactivate it. Now, she can’t send text messages.
But, hey, Blackberry offers OTA so the device can be wiped at a distance. At least that feature could have saved her a trip to IT.
Posted by scifiguy
22 February 2008 @ 5pm
According to friends I have in larger, corporate environments, the key reason they turn down requests for iPhones is that they won’t work with Exchange email unless IMAP is enabled, thus making their network more vulnerable. I know some people using the Outlook Web Access (OWA) via mobile Safari, but it requires a lot of scrolling around. Whatever happened to Apple licensing ActiveSync? I think adding a secure Exchange solution would give Blackberries a run for their money…even in largely Windows environments.