In my recent blog post iPhone in Healthcare. I had a chance to write and discuss security and privacy issues related to Healthcare Apps in iPhone with the ebizQ audience. If you are a Senior Executive or Enterprise IT Planner managing Mobile Infrastructure and Devices for your enterprise , I'm sure you would like to manage and control your work force's mobile devices accessing your corporate data and enforce security policy to control or disable specific features of the iPhone, such as camera , itunes or the installation of additional applications by business users. Apple is yet to release tools for Enterprise IT planners or designers or Deployment specialists to implement iPhone deployments at a large scale. I'm sure Apple will release a deployment product soon or it must be in its early release stages. I believe it will be based on their existing technologies borrowed from the deployment of Xserves and Mac. Some of the features Enterprise customers will need in an iPhone Management and Deployment tool are:-
NetSuite SuitePhone
SuitePhone capability allows NetSuite subscribers to access their Netsuite Applications using the Apple iPhone. The new SuitePhone capability provides native support for Safari - iPhone browser. SuitePhone is more of a hybrid using the power of Safari browser and Netsuite support for Apple Safair Mac and iPhone platform.
Salesforce CRM Mobile v3
It's a Mobile version of Salesforce CRM. Salesforce provides Mobile and Lite version of your Salesforce application to manage and keep track of your sales Leads/Contacts.
SugarCRM 5.1
SugarCRM lets iPhone users to view and edit records in a company's Sales Force Automation solution, including Opportunity, Contact, and Account Management.
A few other bloggers have also posted a listing of Enterprise Apps for iPhone here and here. If you are a deployment specialist or Enterprise IT Planner let me know what are the features you want in a Mobile deployment product.
- Protect data or remotely wipe business data
- Control to install and uninstall applications remotely
- Ability to push software/application updates automatically
- Acccess control updates (If an iPhone is stolen and if the password is wrong after a number of tries the phone should lock down)
NetSuite SuitePhone
SuitePhone capability allows NetSuite subscribers to access their Netsuite Applications using the Apple iPhone. The new SuitePhone capability provides native support for Safari - iPhone browser. SuitePhone is more of a hybrid using the power of Safari browser and Netsuite support for Apple Safair Mac and iPhone platform.
Salesforce CRM Mobile v3
It's a Mobile version of Salesforce CRM. Salesforce provides Mobile and Lite version of your Salesforce application to manage and keep track of your sales Leads/Contacts.
SugarCRM 5.1
SugarCRM lets iPhone users to view and edit records in a company's Sales Force Automation solution, including Opportunity, Contact, and Account Management.
A few other bloggers have also posted a listing of Enterprise Apps for iPhone here and here. If you are a deployment specialist or Enterprise IT Planner let me know what are the features you want in a Mobile deployment product.
The thing that appeals architecturally for the Blackberry is the BES server. You drop them in, and you have secure access into your corporate network.
With the iPhone for my work I have to use a VPN key to get in, and the VPN connection keeps dropping out.
I want a way to write apps where identity management (authentication) is dealt with, and where its easy to safely get into the corporate network (and push out from the corporate network).
Of course, the whole Blackbery story of encryption everywhere, encrypted storage in phone, remote wipe capabilities, etc is a part of this. It needs to be easy for users, but it MUST be secure.
Of course the very next page I open is http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/integration/ which has a "New" Deployment Resources section listing what is now possible. Sounds like the 3GS has more security features (such as encrypting storage)? The page says 3GS, but might be the 3.0 OS. More reading required, but looks promising!
Thanks for the update Alan.