iPhone 3G S Not Ready for Enterprises Yet

[Terry Olaes]

PCWorld reports that the iPhone 3G S is still not ready for enterprise deployment, according to analysts. Even though the refresh supports remote data wipe, hardware-based encryption, and laptop tethering, it still falls short in other areas that enterprises require for administration and compliance.

Since its launch in 2007, the iPhone has suffered from "enterprise envy," added Steve Hilton, an analyst at The Yankee Group. "Having been built for consumer segments, the iPhone now seeks the magic blue pill to extend into the enterprise. Remote wipe, encryption, tethering [are] necessary, but not sufficient" for enterprise adoption, he said.

 

[aggiestudd07]

so it really has nothing to do with the 3G S, it is the OS that "isnt ready" for enterprise deployment since that is where Apple has disabled processes running in the background like remote management software

 

[Lazybones]

It has basically the same core management features as a windows mobile device since they both use active sync. It enforces Exchange password lock policy and the remote wipe is initiated the same way.

 

[TechieSooner]

You didn't have to be a genius to figure that one out...

Here's the thing... Either they have to conform to all of Microsoft's protocols for Active Sync (I don't see them doing that) or they'll have to write a decent server-side management software (Apple's enterprise-anything sucks balls)...

So I'm personally not holding my breath for this becoming an enterprise device.

 

[BBA]

Anything with an "i-" in front of it's name is a POS.

As far as I have seen, anything not RIM has been classified as not enterprise ready as well.

 

[TechieSooner]

Anything with an "i-" in front of it's name is a POS.

As far as I have seen, anything not RIM has been classified as not enterprise ready as well.

I'd tend to agree. WinMo has some decent features... I'd rank them #2.
But Blackberry, yes, they are more expensive and yes, they require their own server software... But all those things equate to much more flexibility.

 

[SerpentSix]

First let me state my affiliation. I am a MS fan and a windows admin. I work in advertising so we have alot of Macs. We prefer the iphone to any phone currently on the market.
Easy to setup, works great with Exchange, we can sync Outlook and Entourage calendars to them, remote wipe if they get lost. What more does an Enterprise need? We don't need another system to manage that's for sure. An enterprise blackberry server is about the gayest thing I've ever heard of....i hate crackberry's.

 

[risqu3]

First let me state my affiliation. I am a MS fan and a windows admin. I work in advertising so we have alot of Macs. We prefer the iphone to any phone currently on the market.
Easy to setup, works great with Exchange, we can sync Outlook and Entourage calendars to them, remote wipe if they get lost. What more does an Enterprise need? We don't need another system to manage that's for sure. An enterprise blackberry server is about the gayest thing I've ever heard of....i hate crackberry's.

they need copy and paste

 

[Serpico]

they need copy and paste

Anybody that isn't already running OS 3.0 will have it in a few days.

 

[omega-x]

android is even less ready, it doesn't even support exchange yet (and the firmwares that do, do it wrong (ie, no zimbra support))

 

[TechieSooner]

First let me state my affiliation. I am a MS fan and a windows admin. I work in advertising so we have alot of Macs. We prefer the iphone to any phone currently on the market.
Easy to setup, works great with Exchange, we can sync Outlook and Entourage calendars to them, remote wipe if they get lost. What more does an Enterprise need? We don't need another system to manage that's for sure. An enterprise blackberry server is about the gayest thing I've ever heard of....i hate crackberry's.

To start out with...
Over-the-air upgrades, not just the BB OS itself but applications too
Web-based administration console to manage the devices (for Admins)
3DES encryption from the device all the way back to the server.
Ability to lock down about anything.
SMS Message logging
Not sure if ActiveSync does it, but BB can integrate with IMs into a Communications Server
Scheduled IT Policies
Tons more refined and detailed settings (IE, I can shut SMS off, voice dialing, even go down to simple little things like blocking BCC).

Probably more than what I'm thinking about. All ActiveSync offers is the basics. And the iPhone doesn't come close to even what ActiveSync has.
It's much more than syncing.

 

[FoBZY]

First let me state my affiliation. I am a MS fan and a windows admin. I work in advertising so we have alot of Macs. We prefer the iphone to any phone currently on the market.
Easy to setup, works great with Exchange, we can sync Outlook and Entourage calendars to them, remote wipe if they get lost. What more does an Enterprise need? We don't need another system to manage that's for sure. An enterprise blackberry server is about the gayest thing I've ever heard of....i hate crackberry's.

wow you can sync outlook and remote wipe? The iphone never ceases to amaze me

 

[BBA]

wow you can sync outlook and remote wipe? The iphone never ceases to amaze me

I think the guy who posted the iphone fan talk (SerpentSix) is not experienced with enterprise level security, so I can see why he would think that way.

 

[Lazybones]

We have a mix of WinMo, Blackberry and iPhone users. I know our Blackberry users love it when the blackberry network goes down making all the data services useless on their phones. I have never understood why RIM feels the need to back-haul ALL the traffic even when you have a BES server you are dependant on them, they seem to have one major screwup once. Not to mention you have to pay more for calls to use Blackberries on your network.

Telco provided OS builds sort of screw Blackberies and WinMo phones as well, they use it to make modes obsolete even when updates do exist. Other than new hardware features, Apple really has treated iPhone owners very well, providing common, consistent OS releases for ALL MODELS!

It may be basic but when it comes down to it, device locking, and remote wipe are the most important features.

 

[SerpentSix]

To start out with...
Over-the-air upgrades, not just the BB OS itself but applications too
Web-based administration console to manage the devices (for Admins)
3DES encryption from the device all the way back to the server.
Ability to lock down about anything.
SMS Message logging
Not sure if ActiveSync does it, but BB can integrate with IMs into a Communications Server
Scheduled IT Policies
Tons more refined and detailed settings (IE, I can shut SMS off, voice dialing, even go down to simple little things like blocking BCC).

Probably more than what I'm thinking about. All ActiveSync offers is the basics. And the iPhone doesn't come close to even what ActiveSync has.
It's much more than syncing.

It's nice to be able to do all that stuff but is it necesary? 3des back to the server for email and calendar items? SSL is fine for us. I would like to be able to push out updates, but it's not critical.I guess it really just depends on the Enterprise. Some of you guys sound like your working for the DOD....

 

[TechieSooner]

We have a mix of WinMo, Blackberry and iPhone users. I know our Blackberry users love it when the blackberry network goes down making all the data services useless on their phones.

No different than if the network Exchange is sitting on goes down. If Exchange goes down your SOL anyway.

Not to mention you have to pay more for calls to use Blackberries on your network.

?????

Telco provided OS builds sort of screw Blackberies and WinMo phones as well, they use it to make modes obsolete even when updates do exist. Other than new hardware features, Apple really has treated iPhone owners very well, providing common, consistent OS releases for ALL MODELS!

You do realize ATT still dictates features inside the iPhone?

It may be basic but when it comes down to it, device locking, and remote wipe are the most important features.

Maybe for you...

It's nice to be able to do all that stuff but is it necesary? 3des back to the server for email and calendar items? SSL is fine for us. I would like to be able to push out updates, but it's not critical.I guess it really just depends on the Enterprise. Some of you guys sound like your working for the DOD....

You've obviously never spent time in an Enterprise environment... Pushing out updates is a huge time saver. You want to spend a shitload of money, talley up all the IT hours of manually doing updates, you'd be shocked how expensive it really is. Or the alternative: One system administrator pushing the update out.
You've also apparently never had to deal with stolen equipment, either... Or 3DES encryption would matter more to you.
The rest of it has very real applications. For instance the scheduled IT Policies. If you want to have a new password policy go in place at 9AM on the 16th, you schedule the damned thing and forget about it. It goes effective the same time you told your users it does.

 

[matttehman]

Exactly, where I work at, in a remote IT health system villiage just south of antartica... These fools were routing their exchange email to their iphone, through yahoo mail. Can you say HIPPA no-no...

 

[Lazybones]

No different than if the network Exchange is sitting on goes down. If Exchange goes down your SOL anyway.

Fewer points of network / sever failure
Blackberries = Carrier Network + RIM Network (has failed for whole days) + BES + Exchange

Active Sync = Carrier Network + Exchange

Half as many points of failure

?????

Calls should have read CALs, as in device licences to connect the blackberries to BES, in lower volumes it is something crazy like $100 per device. Gets better the more you commit to RIM.

You do realize ATT still dictates features inside the iPhone?

That wasn't the point, even a first gen iPhone can get version 3 OS, what was the last OS release ATT or your carrier gave you for your first gen Blackberries?

Maybe for you...


You've obviously never spent time in an Enterprise environment... Pushing out updates is a huge time saver. You want to spend a shitload of money, talley up all the IT hours of manually doing updates, you'd be shocked how expensive it really is. Or the alternative: One system administrator pushing the update out.
You've also apparently never had to deal with stolen equipment, either... Or 3DES encryption would matter more to you.
The rest of it has very real applications. For instance the scheduled IT Policies. If you want to have a new password policy go in place at 9AM on the 16th, you schedule the damned thing and forget about it. It goes effective the same time you told your users it does.

What updates are you pushing to your phones? I push updates to my desktops all the time and yes is saves time, but phones have mostly OS updates which apple makes easy to install through iTunes which most if not all iPhone users use. They also have an enterprise tool they lets you distribute enterprise apps but I haven't used it yet.

As for 3DES, data transfers for active sync use SSL which seems to be good enough for most banks and webmail systems. The new 3GS also has hardware encryption.
Remote wipe works well, so a thief gets an empty device that requires reactivation.
My policys are set once in ad, they set passwords for windows logins, exchange and my phones. No need to admin a whole other system for the same purposes.

I run all three device types because management will not commit to one yet.
If you are in a locked down policy heavy environment sure the blackberries are probably a better fit, however for a more average business environment the iPhone is rapidly becoming a legitimate option.

 

[Lazybones]

Exactly, where I work at, in a remote IT health system villiage just south of antartica... These fools were routing their exchange email to their iphone, through yahoo mail. Can you say HIPPA no-no...

That isn't an I phone problem that is a bone headed exchange admin not blocking forwarding to external systems. If they where able to do that you could fill in the blank with any imap enabled smart phone.

 

[Lazybones]

PCWorld reports that the iPhone 3G S is still not ready for enterprise deployment, according to analysts. Even though the refresh supports remote data wipe, hardware-based encryption, and laptop tethering, it still falls short in other areas that enterprises require for administration and compliance.

Funny I don't recall the last time anyone took PCWorld seriously for Enterprise, but both Gartner and Forrester changed there tune on the iPhone with OS 2.0 and that should only improve with the 3GS having hardware encryption.

Gartner
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=626608

Forrester
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...arch-changes-tune-on-iphone-in-enterprise.ars

 

[TechieSooner]

Fewer points of network / sever failure
Blackberries = Carrier Network + RIM Network (has failed for whole days) + BES + Exchange

Active Sync = Carrier Network + Exchange

Half as many points of failure

Or to reword: one more point of failure.

I honestly don't think you should be counting on your servers going down as consideration for an implementation. If you've got shit going down often enough to where that's an issue: you've got bigger problems.

Calls should have read CALs, as in device licences to connect the blackberries to BES, in lower volumes it is something crazy like $100 per device. Gets better the more you commit to RIM.

I don't recall where anyone said it was cheap... I would never argue against it.

That wasn't the point, even a first gen iPhone can get version 3 OS, what was the last OS release ATT or your carrier gave you for your first gen Blackberries?

12/12/08, to be exact, for the Curves.
4/29/09 for the Bolds.

And guess what? Those updates are mostly just little OS tweaks and bug fixes. There's rarely any glaring security holes. Blackberry also doesn't have to add features in, like copy and paste, that it already knows business users want.

Apple: just playing catch up.

What updates are you pushing to your phones? I push updates to my desktops all the time and yes is saves time, but phones have mostly OS updates which apple makes easy to install through iTunes which most if not all iPhone users use.

Yep, you've got me beat.
Hooking an iPhone up to iTunes is SOOOO much easier than hitting a few buttons on the server and doing it over the air

As for 3DES, data transfers for active sync use SSL which seems to be good enough for most banks and webmail systems. The new 3GS also has hardware encryption.
Remote wipe works well, so a thief gets an empty device that requires reactivation.
My policys are set once in ad, they set passwords for windows logins, exchange and my phones. No need to admin a whole other system for the same purposes.

Obviously you have no idea what you're talking about with SSL. Comparing SSL to 3DES is like comparing a highway to a car, rather than a car to a car.
All SSL does is the connection.

All the rest of that stuff is that the Blackberry has had forever (remote wipe, encryption). All Apple is doing is playing catch up, with a glitzy interface on top.

As far as your "separate login" argument... Again, it's blatantly obvious you haven't even used this stuff.
To add a user? I add them to the Blackberry server, then they active their device. Done. It hooks right into AD Hell, the user doesn't need to know anything but their email address, or a password, if I set one for activation.
Actually using ActiveSync, if a user's password changes, you have to make sure that the device password changes too. That's a PITA for the users to screw with, especially the ones that don't know much about the setup of the accounts. You don't have to screw with that on Blackberry, as besadmin has the send-as permission on all the accounts.

 

[rbanzai]

My problem with working with handhelds, any handheld is that so many are personal purchases, not corporate. Even if the iPhone offered the full suite of security features most users would not tolerate being locked down on their own device.

The flipside of that is that I still haven't worked for a company (even my current publicly traded employer) that is interested in taking advantage of modern security features on ANY of their systems. It's depressing how hard it is to sell the value of security to the higher-ups. All they see is inconvenience, no matter how minor.

iPhone's have become less painful to use in a corporate environment and probably now have enough security to pass muster at the average company but until they offer everything the BB does they will not meet a higher standard.

 

[TechieSooner]

My problem with working with handhelds, any handheld is that so many are personal purchases, not corporate. Even if the iPhone offered the full suite of security features most users would not tolerate being locked down on their own device.

My rule on this... If you want to use your personal device and hook it up to our server, you're going to have all of our IT Policies applied (Password, encryption, etc, etc).
No exceptions

Of course there's still people that figure out how to do it with SMTP and POP, of which case when I go to Postini I'll be cutting all those lines of communication.

The flipside of that is that I still haven't worked for a company (even my current publicly traded employer) that is interested in taking advantage of modern security features on ANY of their systems. It's depressing how hard it is to sell the value of security to the higher-ups. All they see is inconvenience, no matter how minor.

In my case, stuff had to be stolen and data lost before anything happened.
Sad how that works, but it's the same way as backup. You can tell a person to keep their stuff backed up, but they'll never do it until they experience a data failure.

iPhone's have become less painful to use in a corporate environment and probably now have enough security to pass muster at the average company but until they offer everything the BB does they will not meet a higher standard.

I'd kindof agree...
Still, Blackberry offers more than what even WinMo does... Centralized management that also can do individualized management.
Neither WinMo or the iPhone really offers that same level of management... Not to say it won't work for smaller businesses, but it's still very clear why RIM has been and will be for the foreseeable future: the #1 business device.
Heck didn't the Curve pass the iPhone here a month or two ago in sales? They're even gaining traction in the consumer market, too, since they can be had for under $100.