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Apple Hops Aboard Enterprise: Push Email and Calendars, Activesync and Exchange Support

All the hand-wringing about whether or not the iPhone's suitable for corporate environments is basically being put to rest. It's getting everything a proper drone phone needs: push email, push calendar, push contacts, global address list, Cisco VPN, certificates and identities, WPA2/ 802.1x, security policies, device configuration and Remote Wipe. Plus, the biggie: Exchange support built into the native mail, calendar and contact apps, with on/off toggles for each of them under the Exchange server tab. Nike and Disney (natch) are talking about using the iPhone's corporate ActiveSync support. Will your corporate overlords?

[Apple iPhone SDK Liveblog]

1:19 PM on Thu Mar 6 2008
By matt buchanan
24,546 views
62 comments

Comments

  • boom!

  • Fwd to Dad: You have no more excuses, old man!

  • woo

  • @shorty63136: He can always try to damn expensive...

    Now a 80GB Iphone for that price.. then one has few complaints..

  • i believe i'm about to lose control of my bladder since my university uses WPA2 enterprise and this means i'd finally be able to get on their network!...my biggest internal battle will come with deciding to update and lose all my jailbreak apps

  • Seems Apple has implemented all the features those enterprise cry babies wants. (even remote data wipe!)

    Enterprise IT guys(mostly Microsoft fanboys) are weeping...

  • Exchange support.
    (AKA Apple bows to MS)

    It's about time.


  • 802.1x--finally I can turn the Radius server and certificate enabled wireless access back on.

  • This from a company that just EOL's their drive array without 90-day vendor/supply channel notice (I think that pissed off many of sysadmins and techs). No wonder hardware folks take Apple for less cred.
    Yay..booo...Yay!...booo....BOOM!

  • @pipper: Speaking as an Enterprise IT guy, yeah, I'm pretty happy about this.

    But I'm not sure how wanting to be able to secure and delete corporate data stored on a phone makes me a "cry baby".

  • well-done Apple... know MMS, 3G and file sharing over bluetooth... oh oh and no recess headphone Jack on the 3G model.

    Well Done Apple

  • @ aec007 - I don't see it as bowing to MS at all. More like, "We know this is what it's going to take to get those hesitant for that reason to convert from the WM 5/6 handsets to the iPhone."

    28% of the smartphone market is nothing to sneeze at.

  • Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead at 01:34 PM on 03/06/08 *

    You know what this means.

    People will complain about the lack of a hard keypad even more.

  • MY FACE IS LEAKING!!

  • Holy crap, this is gonna blow WM out of the water.

  • It's about time. System admins have nothing agaist Apple, it just has to work with our system, not the other way around. Now it does. Duh!

  • Apple will have 75% smart phone market share by '09. Exchange AND ActiveSync AND Cisco AND remote wipe? Wow, verything a growing boy needs... I heart Steve...

  • bout GD time!

  • can some one tell me where i can whatch this keynote..please

  • Too bad we have to wait until JUNE! Crap!

  • @shorty63136:
    All I'm saying is that it's about time they go to Exchange, one of the most widely used platforms in the enterprize email level with lotus Notes being second.

    No large enterprize in it's right mind will switch users to Apple mail without the same e-mail functionality.

    Exchange just works. Outlook just works. Even when piggy backing onto a Lotus Notes system.
    When I was at a large corporation years ago, all Mac users in art departments had zero support from Apple on enterprise level email. They received junk and they emailed junk.

    It's about time.



  • @aec007:

    "(AKA Apple bows to MS)"

    LOLZ. There certainly is a way to put a negative spin on anything, isn't there ;-p

  • can somebody explain to me how this will work in a corporation in which users get their e-mail one of three ways:

    - Outlook (while in the office or with VPN established)
    - Outlook Webmail, after identification with SecurID
    - Blackberry

    Any ideas?
    T.

  • Hooray! Give me 3G announcement and I'll consider getting one.

    HTC, I loved you until you scorned me with your Tilt driver issue.

  • @traak: It will work just fine. ActiveSync is just another method of seeing your Exchange inbox. I've run both a blackberry and a windows mobile device against my Exchange mailbox with no problems at all.

  • True Apple supporters shouldn't be pleased by this. All they've offered is Exchange/ActiveSync support. What about Lotus Notes, GroupWise or any of the other corporate mail alternatives to Microsoft. My firm proudly avoids all MS products, but the main partners all want push on their iPhones. I expect that we'll have to move to Exchange now. Sigh.

  • @lamont
    No VPN necessary? No firewall mods necessary?
    When I'm not in a VPN, naturally I can't even "see" my exchange server...

    T.

  • I'm extremely grateful of the Exchange support. It's about time, Apple.

  • now how about some flash......

  • @traak: No VPN but you'll need to open SSL on your firewall.

    Typcially this in handled by deploying what's called a "front-end" server in a DMZ for handling the SSL connections from the Internet. The Front-end server then talks to your back end mailbox server.

    if you already have Outlook Web Access deployed in your enterprise, you are basically all set just a few minor settings changes on the servers.

  • @A Lawyer: No worries, MS offers some tools for migrating from Notes to Exchange. ;-P

  • I wonder how a true enterprise environment with in-house development staff would produce in-house applications when it would cost money and essentially be available to anyone for download via the APP Store...

    If I needed to develop an application for my company which wasn't pertinent to anyone outside the company but which could expose sensitive corporate data and we wanted to standardize on the iPhone as a premium platform... how could I reliably distribute the application without having to go through the store, but still retain my ability to have the application signed?

    This is what I want to know...

  • @Lamont:
    Becuase the people who make comments like that have a "user" mentality and don't care about corporate security concerns, only that their trendy phone can get their work email.

  • Apple loves me this I know
    Cause the iphone is now actually so usfeul.

    Too bad I still have some time left on my "sentence" with Selective Phone Incarceration with Nuisance Technology.


  • Can I install OneNote on it?

  • please god, don't take away my blackberry for this gimmicky piece of shit. please! still waiting for an android device anyway.

  • @traak: That sounds familiar. What company do you work for?

  • @cgiddings: In the Q&A Session Jobs said they are working on a method for internal corporate app distribution.....

  • @slowreader

    SAP

  • @Lamont: That makes me happy. Thanks.

  • IIRC, at least with Windows Mobile, you needed to have Exchange 2007 for HTML e-mail to actually render on your device via activesync.

    I am avoiding 2007 like the plague since they broke so much interface management wise, and went wayyyyy too far with the granularity that can only be really tweaked in the "powershell" command line, and Exchange 2003 runs like a top.

    The Contacts and calender sync is cool. I might set mine up to just sync that, and keep the mail the Exchangified IMAP, since I like my HTML, and a 30 min check is good enough for me and my battery. Push is going to kill your battery. It did on my Mogul, which I only had for two months(WM sucks).

    Otherwise, I am overwhelmed by all the announcements today. I knew I should have purchased APPL stock the moment there were rumors of this.

  • Any ideas on what kind of effort it will take from an internal IT department of 1 person to provide iphone support? I work at a small firm and we don't even run the latest software for our blackberry.

  • Come on Wireless sync. Please..... i cannot believe i have to hook up a cable everytime i want to update contacts, addresses, notes......

  • OMG they copied MS!!!!!!!!!! STEALRZ

  • Unless I am missing something.. I see no mention of encryption. So, a device with no encryption potential is a huge security risk in an enterprise environment.

    Multiple states have laws dictating disclosure should a information be lost and it's not encrypted. The integration of the iPhone into the enterprise environment would be foolhardy if it cannot be encrypted.

    I hope I am wrong, otherwise it's a dead issue here. The first lost phone will be a major lawsuit as private information is certainly going to be sent via email.

    Remote wipe is nice.. but only if the device can be contacted and it does not absolve you of liability under NYS law at least.

  • I hate to rain on the parade, but I hope they implemented the entire set of security features our Exchange server policy requests. If not, the Exchange server will refuse a connection to the device.
    This is why the iPhone has been denied thus far... security benchmarking.

    carry on...


  • Do you guys know if iphone will support Xpress Maill, that pushes mail from outlook to you cell phone?? I used to use it on my blackjack before and wondering if this bring it back to iphone now. Any news/comments?

  • @Lamont:

    There is only one reason for this. The 3G iphone debuts at the WWDC 08.

  • @brooklynbound25:

    So? Someone will write an app now for it.

  • @keyser:

    I could be wrong. But I think that might have actually crossed their minds during development.

  • @olternaut: yes, i agree - i am sure it did. i hope they didn't not implement full AS support over a few dollars.
    it would break my heart to send those "poor people" (rich really LOL) another memo saying that we wont send them email to their device.

    you should have seen the vex vein on this guy when i told him "no" last month when ATT "launched" the corp data packages. he wanted to get me fired, but i had a printed copy of our security policy LOL.

    btw, i think they will launch it after wm6.1 as the features listed are 6.1 features (esp when paired with exch 2007 and their bes... ummm device mgt console.

    sorry for blabbing...


  • @LTS!: ActiveSync uses encryption for the transactions between phone and Exchange server. Can't speak to the encryption on the device....Blackberry still probably has 'em beat there.

    @keyser: if they are implementing Exchange ActiveSync, I think by definition it has to implement all the security features of that solution.

  • Why would my company buy devices for staff that allow them to download videos and music to their corporate phone? Most companies purposefully turn off the media features of the BlackBerry on staff because they do not want trouble tickets on those issues. Is it reasonable to think that corporations are going to ignore these features on the iPhone and buy them for staff anyway? Some might. I am guessing that most will not.

  • I am very happy to hear about Exchange support on this little bugger. One thing that has me though is... If Apple bent over for Microsoft and is now paying a licensing fee will we see a REAL effin client on OS X? Because as it is right now, exchange on the Mac - well it blows. The only "real" option is Entourage which is practically just a desktop based web app vs. a complete client.
    Oh please Apple get your stuff together on the desktop side!


  • I wonder how many people where I work will be trading in their blackjacks/Qs/Crackberries/etc tomorrow? Only three people where I work have an iPhone (including me). I would love to see more people adopt it. And they will.
    Will I get a call on Monday from a new iPhone user asking me to setup exchange? Yes, and I will tell them you should have read it will be released in June.
    I'm happy activeSync and all the other goodies are coming.
    This day has just as exciting as the first day the iPhone was introduced.

    Thank you Apple!!!

  • @tketch: Actually, Entourage 2008 is a major improvement. But besides that, why don't you just run Parellels or Fusion? Then you could run Windows Outlook and have what you want.