“Image-conscious executives who want to own the latest tech gadgets might put their companies at risk if they try to connect iPhones to corporate networks, warns an analyst,” Poonam Khanna reports for IT Business.
Khanna reports, “To guard against such eventualities, IT departments should begin drafting policies forbidding executives from connecting their Apple iPhones to company networks, said Rob Enderle, a principal analyst with the Enderle Group based in San Jose, Calif. ‘The device isn’t secure enough, nor is it designed to run with corporate systems,’ he said.”
“Those targeting [the business] market, such as RIM, don’t need to start worrying about Apple, said Brian Sharwood of the SeaBoard Group in Toronto. The two companies are going after very different markets and whereas Apple sells a piece of hardware, RIM sells a service, he said,” Khanna reports.
Khanna reports, “But because of the iPhone’s attractive form factor, executives are likely to start buying it when it becomes available in June in the U.S., and tech departments need to head them off at the pass by issuing policies that forbid iPhones from being connected to networks, Enderle said. If executives insist on connecting iPhones, then the IT department has a duty to report the violation since it could mean that Sarbanes-Oxley or other compliance rules have been broken, Enderle said.”
“But not everyone is as worried about iPhones finding their way onto corporate networks,” Khanna reports. “The iPhone is secure because it has built-in support for IMAP or Internet Message Access Protocol and POP3 Mail, said Charles Golvin, principal analyst for Forrester Research in San Francisco. Most organizations run Exchange, which has IMAP support, which means the iPhone can automatically receive push e-mail, unlike RIM devices, which need a BlackBerry Enterprise Server to receive e-mail, Golvin said.”
Khanna reports, “But, like Enderle, Golvin agrees that iPhones will find their way into the enterprise via executives looking to get their hands on the latest devices. Executives who don’t have limits on what they spend are image-conscious and tend to buy Apple devices, he said. This is how the BlackBerry eventually found its way into the enterprise, he said.”
Full article here.
Good Jobs, they’re desperate. The “iPhone not for business” tack is an obvious talking point used by companies that are threatened by iPhone and disseminated by said companies’ paid lackeys. If this pitiful nonsense is all they have to combat Apples highly-patented iPhone, they’re doomed and they know it.
Related articles:
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
Apple’s soon-to-be iPhone rivals sound just like iPod rivals circa 2001 – February 01, 2007
O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile battle for exclusive rights to Apple iPhone in UK – January 26, 2007
Rogers to offer Apple iPhone exclusively in Canada – January 25, 2007
FUD Alert: Apple iPhone ‘isn’t very practical’ and a ‘security risk’ for business – January 24, 2007
Research in Motion downgraded due to Apple iPhone competition – January 23, 2007
Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone – January 17, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
eWeek: Apple iPhone fallout: ‘They must be crying in Nokia-ville and other telephony towns today’ – January 10, 2007
Jefferies downgrades Motorola on fears of market share loss to Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
Ah yes, that old Sarbanes-Oxley clause. Need to watch that.
Connecting Apple iPhone to corporate email or network is against Sarbanes-Oxley?
This is one of the most stupid things I’ve ever read.
Endearly is correct.
In the real world of business information technology departments — and corporate computer help desks — we have always banned Apple products.
Why should the iPhone be different.
Apple is not enterprise-friendly like Microsoft.
As long as Apple remains a bohemian outfit managed by ex-hippies and other dangers to the corporate order, IT departments should and will continue to fight to keep their products out.
There is no room in the real world of enterprise information technology for Apple.
Endearly is, as always, very much correct.
Ban Apple products from American offices and factories.
I’m getting one ASAP!
Wonder if Enderle will say Microsoft Zune phone breaks Sarbanes-Oxley compliance too?
I am prepared to bet that he does not, anyone willing to take that bet?
Eric Willard is a moron.
Bill Gates is a moron.
Steve Ballmer is a moron.
Rob Enderle is a moron.
Wow, if this is the quality of Enderle’s advice, I would be amazed if he gets repeat business. He is saying, ‘go out of your way to make a stupid policy that you know will be violated, so you then have to report violation, or face heavy penalties.’
On the other hand, if they just leave things alone, no policies will be violated and there will be no possibility of penalties.
Wow!
Hey Real Business World Information Technology person
Still fighting to make your job relevant?
I don’t see a problem, the iPhone should have a VPN in it (i hope), if businesses pull this, then they should have to pull other “smart” phones too. why can a black berry go on their network and not a iPhone?
(IT departments should forbid executives from connecting iPhone to corporate networks)
But it’s ok for the executives to bring a laptop from home with wireless connectivity, what’s the difference between the laptop or the iPhone?
note to MDN: stop it please, you only feed the ignorant here on your own web site.
dont be evil, MDN
at this point in time ENDERLE AND THURROT are exposed for the frauds that they are. Even PC fanbois consider them just a cartoon.
George Bush has an iPhone on order, is the IT department going to stop him from using it at work, I don’t think so.
Enderle is a one-man company tool for M$. He has his head so far up Mr. Bill’s arse that he can’t think straight, make that at all. All he’s focused on is the sweet smell emanating from Mr. Bill’s lower digestive tract.
Tools are Fools.
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The iPhone would be in violation of Sarbanes-Oxley? Maybe someone knows more than me, but how can the use of a phone/ipod/web browser/email client in violation of a set of accounting rules?
Maybe if the executives buy their iPhones with company money and not reporting it.
I am sure there is an explanation. An analyst of such great caliber, such as Enderle wouldn’t just through out terms that have no relevance to the topic at had just to cause Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. </Sarcasm>
If anything, it’s ideal for businesses because it’s so locked down… just download apps directly from Apple or the iTS. At least there’s a filter for scary software.
But of course, that’s not what Enderle’s talking about. He’d rather make up some junk about a bunch of geeks sitting around telling each other not to buy the iPhone, which, of course never happened (outside of Washington state)
“Executives who don’t have limits on what they spend are image-conscious and tend to buy Apple devices….”
And they’re going to be plenty pissed off that some IT clone dweeb is telling them to use only the ugly stuff. Executives of that caliber are highly mobile, as well, in all facets of the term. Some officers are fully expendable and will not be missed (can you say middle-management, kids?)- but top-positioned executives will bolt to a more conspicuously intelligent firm quickly if they are told ‘you can’t do that here’.
Nuge: This is the constant quality of Enderle’s analysis and advice. He clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and he’s demonstrably wrong at least twice as often as he’s right on a technicality, and yet he still gets quoted. I’ve even heard him on NPR.
It’s the clearest demonstration possible that the majority of the IT press has its head firmly lodged up its nether regions.
Khanna reports, “But, like Enderle, Golvin agrees that iPhones will find their way into the enterprise via executives looking to get their hands on the latest devices. Executives who don’t have limits on what they spend are image-conscious and tend to buy Apple devices, he said. This is how the BlackBerry eventually found its way into the enterprise, he said.”
wow, geniuses. Blackberry’s secret to success is its high price. brilliant.
Enderle excels himself with this nonsense.
For security reasons, people are usually banned from connecting any personal device to a corporate network. The Corporate network will usually assign an IP address by DHCP, but only to known devices (filtered on MAC address, probably).
What will happen is that if an iPhone is supplied to an exec by the company, they’ll be able to connect it. If it’s personal, just like I can’t connect my macbook to the network here, they won’t be able to connect it.
It’s not that the iPhone is insecure, it’s that unknown, non-corporate supplied deviced are insecure.
Also should not be able to plug in USB sticks or external firewire drives, but that’s harder to control.
iPhone has a MAC address, so if the network has basic security then it will be safe from iPhones !
Hey real world business person. YOu need some help if you think macs are not enterprise friendly. last time i checkd macs ran the industry standard unix OS under the hood of the MAC OS. macs are much more secure then windows by far.
If corp it america used macs we would never hear this news about viruses invading the computers. You would not have IT people spending hours updating and upgrading the computer daily to keep it safe.
Its so funny how mis informed pc users are. you said there is no room in the enterprise for Apple but yet i know of a lot of companies who use apple and our local hospitals here all run on Unix not microsoft but UNIX. well unix is what makes max os x what it is.
I have had IT guys who knew macs wish they had macs in thier network because it would be so much easier to work with and so many less rules that employees would have to follow.
If I was president of a company and the IT guy said I couldn’t connect my iPhone to the network, I’d fire ’em.
Is Enderle psychic ?? This anal-yst should be a millionaire by now, knowing so much about a product that isn’t even on the market yet.
He is my hero, I wish I could be like him (big chunk vomiting at this point).
MS toads asshole
He’s Dvorak’s bed-mate and uses the same tactics with the same motivations. Ignore him. Correct the idiot journalists that quote him instead.
Geez, another mind dump from the empty skull that is Rob Enderle. Seriously, why does anyone ask this buffoon about Apple. No where on his site does he say he worked for Apple, consulted with Apple, even knows anyone who works at Apple. So why do they ask him questions about Apple. I really wish these journalists would check his website before they call him asking for an opinion. He is quite clearly a PR flack that is paid by companies to smear competitor companies’ products. He especially hates Linux. Now I wonder why that is the case. We should examine his website over the next few months and see when he “consults” with Motorola and Nokia. I am sure that is coming soon.
What can I say? I’m astonished about the stupidity.
A USB stick is less secure than an iPhone!
This is the stupidest thing ever.
Enderle has hit a new low.