Apple’s WWDC – Is the iPhone “Enterprise Ready” debate really over? Not so fast…

by Dan Dearing on 20/06/09 at 5:42 pm

Dan Dearing is the Vice President of Marketing & Product Management for Trust Digital and contributing editor for iPhoneCTO.

Last week Kevin Sapp, Trust Digital’s VP of engineering, returned from Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference with a major conclusion: Apple is very serious about the enterprise market and has listened closely to their customers. According to his firsthand account there was an impressive enterprise presence at the show, with IT sessions presenting to audiences of 500 to 1000 people and companies sharing the podium with Apple to discuss their deployment experiences.

Kevin believes that Apple is going after RIM and their Blackberry devices in a big way. Apple has filled in the product gaps to advantage the iPhone over the Blackberry when used for life – as Palm likes to say – or business. With the addition of “always-on” device encryption, tethering, resource controls and on-demand VPN, the iPhone 3G (more specifically, iPhone OS 3.0) is now truly enterprise-ready. The only remaining issue is that Apple does not have an Apple Enterprise Server – in other words a BES for the iPhone. Here’s a shameless plug for Trust Digital: that’s what we do.

The BES makes it easy for IT to activate, control and maintain Blackberry devices. Unfortunately, Apple recommends a Heathkit approach (something only baby boomers will understand) to building a BES for the iPhone. This approach requires IT to cobble together a solution that uses Exchange for policy management, an ISA server for network security and an Apple Config Profile tool for device management. Note, you must use Exchange for email – if you are using Lotus Notes, you are out of luck because the IBM platform cannot manage policies via ActiveSync.

While the integration task normally falls to the mobility manager – in essence for most companies that would be the BES administrator – he is now faced with three learning curves to operate this Heathkit solution. This approach also requires the BES administrator to be beholden to the rest of IT to support the iPhone. For example, the BES administrator must ask the Exchange messaging team to make changes to iPhone policies. And even as he can make Config Profile changes he has to ask somebody in the datacenter to setup a server to host the profiles. Finally he has to ask the network security folks to setup the ISA server and help maintain it.

The BES makes the BES administrator’s life much simpler by putting all of these tasks under his central control. The Trust Digital EMM platform essentially is the open enterprise server for iPhone and other non-Blackberry smartphones, providing the same level of control and management that BES administrators have come to rely on. The EMM platform leverages the ActiveSync client on the iPhone (read my last post for more insights on that) and other consumer devices to create an open smartphone environment. That makes mobility almost plug and play, both for the users and IT.

According to Kevin Burden, Analyst with ABI Research, the problem with the iPhone 3G is “that you don’t have a console to enforce corporate policies across an entire group of workers.” We agree. So while the debate about whether the iPhone is enterprise-ready is almost over it is clear that a 3rd-party platform is needed to provide a foundation to secure, manage and assist an enterprise’s mobile workforce.

View Comments to “Apple’s WWDC – Is the iPhone “Enterprise Ready” debate really over? Not so fast…”

MobileAdmin

Jun 22nd, 2009

Dan – I appreciate your articles as they draw attention to how mobile device management is a key role to large enterprise now.

I’d be interested in what your TCO is compared to BES. My seat CAL is below $50 now. Also do your provide VPN access similar to BES MDS? Good does – at an extra cost.

I’m sorry but there is still not device level encryption on iPhone. At least nothing enforced via Exchange ActiveSync Policy. What good is a policy users can disable?

Also Apple still doesn’t allow you to disable functionality you don’t want enabled. How about *gasp* turning off AppStore? Great they added the camera policy. Where is SMS audit?

No which we you dice it. BES works easier, has a lower TCO and at the end of the day do you care about providing access to AppStore and procuring a entertainment focused device to your users?
Dan Dearing

Jun 24th, 2009

MobileAdmin – thanks for the feedback. The Trust Digital TCO is on par with Blackberry and it gives IT the flexibility to support and secure a variety of mobile operating systems.

The Apple 3Gs does provide always-on encryption, but the issue is that you need the policy-based PIN to be activated for it to really protect the device.

Our compliance capabilities ensure that policies put in place by IT remain persistent. In essence, the user can only access corporate services such as email if the policies are active – they are blocked by a NAC-like facility that checks the health of the device each time the device attempts to sync. That is IT’s stick to keep employees in line with policy.

You are right. Blackberry is a mature product with a wealth of features and controls. However, we are seeing many IT Blackberry shops “under siege” by their users who feel they will be productive using an iPhone (or a Pre) for both email and Internet access. So, if you can meet your corporate IT objectives, such as securing corporate data and providing regulatory compliance, why not provide users with the choice of device that makes them the most productive at the jobs? The BES becomes a good measuring stick by which to evaluate what is needed to support non-Blackberry devices. Trust Digital is focused on giving its customers that kind of control, management and security.
MobileAdmin

Jun 25th, 2009

I totally agree with your comments and the needs we face but I think you will see a growing policy enforcements in the larger enterprise to not allow personal liable devices. We explored it and it's just a mess to deal with and you don't really save money in the long run. Ex. with many devices free to little cost now and with the volume we deploy our voice and data plan costs don't incurr a big swing one way or the other.

Choice is something we strived to provide is not possible in the current economy as you look at your mobile strategy you decide on a platform and centralize on it to get scale and cost control. Less development is needed, security & compliance is lessened etc. Sadly for many companies who have a large RIM investment it just dosn't make sense. I'd love to explore your product and will keep tabs on your improvements and hopefully out budget comes back.

I'd really love to see someone get SMS / TXT archiving built in similar to what BES does as it is a growing concern for our legal and compliance areas.
MobileAdmin

Jun 25th, 2009

I totally agree with your comments and the needs we face but I think you will see a growing policy enforcements in the larger enterprise to not allow personal liable devices. We explored it and it's just a mess to deal with and you don't really save money in the long run. Ex. with many devices free to little cost now and with the volume we deploy our voice and data plan costs don't incurr a big swing one way or the other.

Choice is something we strived to provide is not possible in the current economy as you look at your mobile strategy you decide on a platform and centralize on it to get scale and cost control. Less development is needed, security & compliance is lessened etc. Sadly for many companies who have a large RIM investment it just dosn't make sense. I'd love to explore your product and will keep tabs on your improvements and hopefully out budget comes back.

I'd really love to see someone get SMS / TXT archiving built in similar to what BES does as it is a growing concern for our legal and compliance areas.
MobileAdmin

Jun 26th, 2009

I totally agree with your comments and the needs we face but I think you will see a growing policy enforcements in the larger enterprise to not allow personal liable devices. We explored it and it's just a mess to deal with and you don't really save money in the long run. Ex. with many devices free to little cost now and with the volume we deploy our voice and data plan costs don't incurr a big swing one way or the other.

Choice is something we strived to provide is not possible in the current economy as you look at your mobile strategy you decide on a platform and centralize on it to get scale and cost control. Less development is needed, security & compliance is lessened etc. Sadly for many companies who have a large RIM investment it just dosn't make sense. I'd love to explore your product and will keep tabs on your improvements and hopefully out budget comes back.

I'd really love to see someone get SMS / TXT archiving built in similar to what BES does as it is a growing concern for our legal and compliance areas.

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