I wonder, is this battle heating up again? Would you allow an iPhone into your corporate environment?
If yes, how come? If not, why?
From Network World:
It’s still not good enough. That’s the reaction of IT analysts and security outfits to Apple’s new iPhone 3G. Sure, the iPhone 2.0 software will support Microsoft Exchange and Cisco VPNs. But is it safe enough for enterprise use — as safe as, say, PCs? Gartner says not quite. The security guys say be afraid. It’s just not good enough yet.
And it never will be. Oops, that wasn’t supposed to slip out.
But hasn’t that historically been IT’s official position? We’re the Department of No. Whatever it is, we’re against it.
Cell phones? Wi-Fi? BlackBerries? Web sites? LANs? Laptops? Spreadsheets? PCs? Departmental minis? Not one of those technologies was secure enough, reliable enough and enterprise-ready enough when business users first insisted on sneaking them in under the IT (or MIS or DP) department’s radar.
Of course, users had to sneak that stuff in. They knew what the answer would be if they asked us: No. Not ready. Not good enough. Not yet.
No? Never heard that one before? Ha!
As a security guy, I’m a little more open minded on the introduction of the iPhone. Now the ball point pen mind you, that is somewhat suspect in my book.
This is an interesting problem. iPhone 1.0 was clearly not an enterprise level device. iPhone 2.0 might be enterprise level depending on the business you support and the data you handle on a regular basis via mobile phone. As far as I can tell, iPhone 2.0 will behave much like a Windows Mobile device when used with Exchange. If that is true, would allowing an iPhone on your network be any worse than a Windows Mobile device?