iPhone software 3.0 in an enterprise business environment?

[St. Germain]

I'm having a discussion on another forum about the limitations of the 3GS and iPhone 3.0 software when it comes to enterprise business use. What are the limitations of 3.0 when it comes to Exchange?

These are some of the limitations I was told, other than remote wipe, are these all accurate with 3.0 when comparing to BlackBerry?

Reasons the iPhone is marginally used in enterprise business environments:

1. You can't lock it down (BES).
2. You can't deploy apps to it (BES).
3. You can't force data comm through a centralized location for auditing (BES).
4. No centralized management (BES).
5. No direct connection to Exchange (relies on ActiveSync).
6. Remote wipe ability (actually i'm not sure if the iPhone has this or not, but am assuming no).
7. Battery life (Curve = 3 days w/ push email, iPhone = 1ish)
8. ActiveSync is simply not reliable enough.

So Apple could essentially fix 7 of the 8 by created a centralized management console to compete with BES. They won't though because giving administrators the ability to control something on one of their devices just isn't their style.

 

[St. Germain]

No one is using their iPhones in this kind of environment?

 

[dagomike]

I'm using it unsupported. I'm not sure how it's working, but it does. I'm using the web mail server address w/ SSL as my Exchange server and it works.

Basically it seems there's no BES, which makes the nerds in the dudgeon's job more difficult. We had them evaluate the iPhone. We bought them some and they played with them for like 9 months and said no for security. I got this second hand since it wasn't my baby, so didn't get the details. Frankly, IT pulls the security card anytime they don't want to do something. I would be interested in hearing a more indepth analysis of what this means and any ways to address this.

Bottom line is I think the iPhone is hopeless in enterprise. Everyone who is using BB has Sprint contracts, so right there that may be a non-starter. Then you have to get them to support it. If the iPhone could somehow be managed by BES, that might work. I don't see many IT departments installing an BES-like system from Apple just for iPhones, even less so if it runs on a Mac.

 

[Rob Mclovin]

Battery life isnt good enought for a business person. A business guy is on his phone alot, emails, texting, web, etc. Phones dead before you finish your shift!

 

[DanielNTX]

1. You can't lock it down (BES). [You can lock it down, you can require pin code or alphanumeric password]
2. You can't deploy apps to it (BES). [You can deploy apps to it.]
3. You can't force data comm through a centralized location for auditing (BES). [You can force a VPN tunnel back to your VPN server.]
4. No centralized management (BES). [You use the iPhone Configuration Utility.]
5. No direct connection to Exchange (relies on ActiveSync). [It actually support RPC over HTTP, so you can connect to Exchange.]
6. Remote wipe ability (actually i'm not sure if the iPhone has this or not, but am assuming no). [You can set policy to remote wipe if password there's too many password failures.]
7. Battery life (Curve = 3 days w/ push email, iPhone = 1ish)
8. ActiveSync is simply not reliable enough.

Read the iPhone Enterprise documents.

 

[nws0291]

The biggest thing preventing it is not the software it's the hardware. No physical keyboard and battery life is what kills it for business users.

With Citrix receiver you can deliver remote apps securely with access gateway.

 

[dagomike]

The biggest thing preventing it is not the software it's the hardware. No physical keyboard and battery life is what kills it for business users.

With Citrix receiver you can deliver remote apps securely with access gateway.

Battery life isnt good enought for a business person. A business guy is on his phone alot, emails, texting, web, etc. Phones dead before you finish your shift!

The problem is not the users. The problem is the enterprise support. The iPhone can stand on its own merits in business, but it's a nonstarter for individuals if IT won't let you connect to Exchange.

 

[rpeterslll]

1. You can't lock it down (BES). [You can lock it down, you can require pin code or alphanumeric password]
2. You can't deploy apps to it (BES). [You can deploy apps to it.]
3. You can't force data comm through a centralized location for auditing (BES). [You can force a VPN tunnel back to your VPN server.]
4. No centralized management (BES). [You use the iPhone Configuration Utility.]
5. No direct connection to Exchange (relies on ActiveSync). [It actually support RPC over HTTP, so you can connect to Exchange.]
6. Remote wipe ability (actually i'm not sure if the iPhone has this or not, but am assuming no). [You can set policy to remote wipe if password there's too many password failures.]
7. Battery life (Curve = 3 days w/ push email, iPhone = 1ish)
8. ActiveSync is simply not reliable enough.

Read the iPhone Enterprise documents.

6. Remote wipe ability (actually i'm not sure if the iPhone has this or not, but am assuming no). [You can set policy to remote wipe if password there's too many password failures.]

Remote wipe is availalbe via Activesync, it uses the Exchange remote wipe utility included with MS Exchange. I have tested this successfully.

 

[ruinfx]

9. iTunes