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"Many IT groups have banned the iPhone from their workplaces . . ."

Not for much longer. I wonder how many of those IT folks secretly have iPhones?

IT nazis drive me crazy!!!

Mar 31, 08 - 01:07 pm Comment from: MikeK

My brother who works for Compuware in Michigan has an iPhone.. he's been hoping for exchange support since he bought it..

Unfortunately, his company's response to the upcoming iPhone update was, "We will not be supporting Active-Sync..." Needles to say, he's pissed..

Strangely enough, the CEO of Compuware, Pete Karmanos owns an iPhone too.. They employ about 3000 people in Detroit, MI.

give these IT dinosaurs free iPhones

Mar 31, 08 - 01:52 pm Comment from: MobileAdmin

Ok .. I'm one of those IT Nazi's mentioned above.

The Iphone is simply not viewed as an enterprise device (yet), I'm part of the 2.0 Beta and it's very basic enterprise support so if your on a Blackberry and expect similar functionality you will be let down.

I think it's a great pro-sumer device but it's core function is media, not exactly a business driver and please don't go on and on about the SDK, it's going to be Q4 or later for most business apps and many of the really good ones will not be free.

So for small business, looser IT controlled businesses .. sure the iphone and similar will get exposure but here in fortune 100 world controls are in place to prevent.

Desktops are locked down, so no loading of itunes (which is silly having it required, but it's an apple control - welcome to the whole cirus deal)

USB ports are disabled

ActiveSync is controlled on Exchange and enabled on a per user level and will require approval, with ActiveSync your stuck with Outlook Web / Mobile Access.

If it supports it, Microsoft Device Manager has even more controls to lock down the camera, loading of 3rd party applications etc.

If needed we could kill the wireless signal and internal WIFI is locked down already to only approved devices.

Mobility has a whole slew of concerns around it beyond, I want the latest cool gadget, data leakage is a growing concern and the thought of mp3/video on a corporate owned device is like water and oil.

There will be interesting decisions and policies for Human Resource departments as the line between personal / work life balance confronts IT goverance.

Don't think this is just about not noticing exciting new technology, many companies are watching the iphone and happy with Blackberry.

BTW Apple user since the IIe through my current G5 so I'm not anti apple .. I bought their products long before the ipod saved them.

Mar 31, 08 - 02:00 pm Comment from: Tiger Leopard

When are the IT guys that think they know everything going to pull the heads out of their asses?

Mar 31, 08 - 02:13 pm Comment from: Macromancer

How about it being as simple as IT being there to serve the needs of the people actually DOING WORK and BILLING CLIENTS. IT doesn't run the show, it's the other way around.

If people want it, then they should have it.

Mar 31, 08 - 02:19 pm Comment from: jimmymac

june june june!!!!
im getting an iphone!
im getting an iphone!
im getting an iphone!
im getting an iphone!
yippy!!!
my wife is letting me get an iphone!!
woohoo!!!
im getting an iphone!
im getting an iphone!
im getting an iphone!

I watched the keynote videos too. I look forward to seeing the newest iPhone upgrade with better exchange support. Unfortunately, we still will hear from the IT Windows Nazis that the iPhone and Mac OS are a security risk to their ultra-secure Windows-based networks. Whaaaat!?!?!?

Mar 31, 08 - 02:25 pm Comment from: Angelus520

My firm announced support starting in June but the CIO commented that people need to realize it has NO physical keyboard and that email addicted road warriors will need to think really hard about that. Guess he hasn't used one himself. Sure it takes a bit getting used to but not a big deal in the end.

I especially loved what this Wall Street Journal article said about SAP starting to develop for the iPhone. Now if they could just create SAP for the Mac OS, that would be cool! Is that what they call the halo effect?

Why does MDN have such a negative take on IT? I have worked in IT for 15+ years and am an avid Mac fan. I use an iPhone within my enterprise and use my company-bought MacBook pro every day.

MDN: I don't think the IT industry is as negative on Apple as you might think.

Mar 31, 08 - 02:43 pm Comment from: Toasty

I honestly don't know why IT staff at some companies would ban the iPhone. It's just silly. We here at my company are excited about adding the iPhone to our enterprise. We have 2 users currently and are awaiting the 2.0 upgrade. No doubt we will add many more iPhones to our company soon.

Mar 31, 08 - 02:45 pm Comment from: grok

@ MobileAdmin -
Good points all. I sincerely hope (and firmly believe) that Apple will simply cede the corporate market that locks down desktops and disables phone functions to RIM et. al., and keep the iPhone the user-centric marvel that it is.

Mar 31, 08 - 02:46 pm Comment from: Woody

Small company IT guy here: We embraced the iPhone the weekend it came out, and haven't looked back. We're also dumping everything Windows and going all-Mac for our office. We know that the whole system, server to workstations, will be much easier to maintain than Windows bloatware. Cheaper, too, in the end, since we don't have to deal with MS's arcane licensing.

Guess it sucks to be one of those Big Company Admins, with all those rules, policies, and inflexibility that keep them from enjoying upgrading to newer, better technology. Oh, and don't flame me about how easy it is for a small company to switch -- we're having to rip everything out and start from scratch, so this is no walk in the park either. The end result will be worth it, though.

Mar 31, 08 - 02:47 pm Comment from: Bluefin

Here's a link to a Computer User's Bill of Rights:

http://www.businessweek.com/1998/39/b3597037.htm

If you follow along, you'll note that most IT departments disagree with every single point.

Anyone commenting on the iPhone's keyboard should be required to try it first before opening one's pie hole.

I watched the SDK Keynote with glee. One by one, the legitimate criticisms of the iPhone evaporated. The pathetic whiners are left with pointless debates over what "3G" means and bitching about GPS. And when every iPhone not jailbroken is automatically updated to the latest and greatest capabilities, the crap distributed by the usual suspects will look more and more pathetic.

I have a Palm Tunsgten, a Motorola E810, and a 30 Gig video iPod. Guess which on those three is the only product to receive regular updates?

Every other so-called competitor to the iPhone uses abandonware principles. The ongoing refinement and addition of features that the iPhone will get puts it in another class entirely.

Apple does not want nor need Fortune 500 companies for business customers of the iPhone. Let those dinosaurs fight over BB and MS phones.

The huge, large majority of business users are small to medium sized. They have to be more flexible. They are lovers of iPhones.

I know how the IT world works in large corporations. Its broke. Forget them Apple, and keep doing what you are doing.

If they want to come along because the employees will revolt, learn to live with Apple's way of doing it.

MobileAdmin
Ok .. I'm one of those IT Nazi's mentioned above.

The Iphone is simply not viewed as an enterprise device (yet), I'm part of the 2.0 Beta and it's very basic enterprise support so if your on a Blackberry and expect similar functionality you will be let down.
==============================

Lol...you're funny.

BTW - it's "You're" not "your".

I look forward to testing the iPhone in a heterogeneous environment. The AT&T;portion of the equation sucks--we just dumped all but a handful of our AT&T;mobile accounts--but I'm curious as to how it can work vis a vis our BB 8830s.

"How about it being as simple as IT being there to serve the needs of the people actually DOING WORK and BILLING CLIENTS. IT doesn't run the show, it's the other way around.

If people want it, then they should have it."

It's this kind of attitude that breeds the creation of IT policies centered around corporate IT security and conformity in the first place It's not your data or your assets, it's the company's data and assets. The user is *not* always right. Au contraire...

As for the User's Bill of Rights, when users are smarter than the equipment they're using, then they can have some rights.

Pick up an iPhone.

You too can be smarter than the equipment you're using.

Mar 31, 08 - 03:37 pm Comment from: MrScrith

@ Tiger Leopard and Macromancer

Attitudes like that is why you hear about major companies getting hacked and loosing your credit card numbers and SSN's, security isn't just the OS having a good firewall and not being susceptible to viruses.

Most people are stupid about security (PEBCAC and ID10T were created for very real reasons). Doesn't matter what their IQ is or how many companies they have led to fortune 500 status, you will still find them using their last name spelled in reverse for a password and thinking it's unbreakable and no hacker would ever think about trying it.

The policies of IT regarding passwords and data security are in place exactly for those reasons. If someone with access to very sensitive data has remote access rights and a password of "password" your data is open to the highest bidder, and several other bidders as well. You may think IT is being a dinosaur for not accepting iPhones with open arms, but until they can control the security of the data the iPhone will be holding, enforce passwords, remotely wipe if stolen or lost, etc. I don't see iPhones showing up in major companies any time soon.

If you disagree feel free to post your credit card numbers, SSN, and any other information you don't want securely handled. I for one would rather IT be somewhat draconian about security to head off those morons who think "1234" is a good PIN for their credit card.

@Rudge-

SAP does run on OS-X.

S

"It would be nice if you weren't forced to get all your apps from Apple."

No it would not. One of the reasons Apple is controlling the software is for security purposes (IT folks take note).

From the article

"In addition, even though Apple intends to set up a private section of its new App Store -- the service through which people download applications for their iPhones -- for business, Mr. O'Berry and other chief information officers don't like the fact that they would have to go through Apple to distribute in-house software to employees. That means giving Apple access to their computer code, which some are reluctant to do."

That's something that's going to annoy people. It would be nice if you weren't forced to get all your apps from Apple. People will still be jailbreaking iPhones for the foreseeable future as a result...

@Bluefin-

I don't know about you, but I've worked in IT for over 10 years now, and I have a hard time agreeing to this:

1. The user is always right. If there is a problem with the use of the system, the system is the problem, not the user.

Let me explain why. At a previous job, one of my coworkers called me for help with his PC. It had frozen on him and was completely non-responsive. It would respond to <CTRL><ALT><DELETE>, and the cursor was not moving at all with mouse movement.

I told him to power cycle the machine and that I'd be by in a few minutes to take a look at it. When I got there, he said that he had turned the computer off, and then back on, and that it was still frozen. Indeed, the computer was still frozen. He demonstrated what he did, by turning the display off and on.

Another employee at that job had taken it upon himself to upgrade the RAM in his computer (it was an Apple PowerMac 8500). The problem was that he used a pair of plier to force the chip into the slot, and damaged the chip (he essentially crushed a couple of IC's on the stick). He opened a helpdesk ticket asking why his computer was only showing 96MBs of RAM when it should have been showing 128MB.

In another example, at my current job a few years ago, I had a user call to request training. I asked her what type of training she needed. She replied that she did not know, just that she needed training. She did not seem capable of understanding the idea that I would need to know what type of training she needed.

When you have users at that skill level, it's not very helpful to say that "the user is always right."

Mar 31, 08 - 04:42 pm Comment from: silverhawk

Some iPhone toting VP should get Beth Cannon a basement office, I bet she would change her tune.

Here is what everyone has missed about iPhone 2.0.

Remote wipe is great if the user knows that the iPhone is missing. What is really needed is encryption. That would be relatively easy, you might think. Apple just has to enable FileVault. But Apple did not talk about encryption or FileVault!!!

Why not?

Well, maybe because, as Jobs said, the event was about software not hardware! Hmmm.... Hardware for encryption? What could that be?

How about fingerprint recognition?

Touch!

Apple is a fortune 100 company, renowned for secrecy and security. They seem to be doing pretty well with the iPhone enterprise rollout.

Mar 31, 08 - 08:12 pm Comment from: Zeke

@AnotherITGUY:

"As for the User's Bill of Rights, when users are smarter than the equipment they're using, then they can have some rights."

Fscking pinhead! It's fools like you who prevent me from getting anything done in a reasonable amount of time, and without approval from 4 layers above. Can't install software, can't use the USB ports, can't SFTP through the firewall, can't receive email with attachments, etc, etc, ad nauseum. I am so tired of jobs that should take 2 hours taking weeks because of really stupid security policies. At one employer (30,000 employees) we were locked out of the web entirely, and so we couldn't shop for materials on line, we had to use paper catalogs. The web was locked but Telnet was not, and I could use it from any machine without even logging in, go figure. I could also log in as a networked printer and do anything I wanted to. We recently lost tens of thousands of dollars because we could not get a patch through the firewall to the server that needed it due, you guessed it, to SECURITY!

The attitudes of IT drones who know little beyond what they had to regurgitate to get an MSCE is insufferable. Comments that demean the intelligence of the average worker who is simply trying to be productive say a lot about the inferiority/superiority complexes exhibited by many in the IT service industry. And I might point out that it *IS* a *SERVICE* industry, you moron.

@shiva (and all the other nazi IT people):

I cringe listening to your so called eye rolling attempts a rationalizing the inflictions you make people go through.

Gosh, someone who disagrees with the "user is always right" concept. Obviously this sort of thinking is right down the lines with the law of demand and supply (as opposed to the law of supply and demand).

Yup, that's IT for you: "You will demand what we supply, if we even decide that you are deemed worthy of it."

Let's look at this farce one step at a time.

1. (Employee reboots machine by turning monitor on and off).
On on off buttons everywhere, backs of machines, top of machines, sides of machines and even the tops of machines if I remember the cube right. Heck, ever look at one of those desktop units, buttons for floppies, CD's to open the front, now where is that power button?).

Yup tell a guy to power cycle the machine, that is the legacy of MS, make something simple complicated. Don't use language the user will understand like "turn off the machine". Instead be sophisticated, make him think you are a god with statements like "power cycle the machine" or "reengage the electron flow by disconnecting the circuit temporarily, then reset the controls for a reboot."

You could write a whole doctoral thesis on the patronizing degrading system messages given by MS, some of which you have to read 4-5 times to make any sense of it.

I wonder how much time anyone took to show this guy where the one off switch was.

2. I can see a few possibilities of why someone would take it upon himself to upgrade the RAM by himself.
-the person was probably tired of asking IT for help. Or impatient.
-the person was given no indication that you are not supposed to service machine (if this was a corporate machine, if it was a personal machine, well that's a different story).
-I wonder where the instruction booklet was to help him, at his desk where he could have used it, or locked away in the IT cupboard, where you would have to sign it out, only if you were worthy of course.

Maybe this person loves to tinker. I wonder what support they got?

3. What a person asking for training but not sure of what kind of training they need. Awwwww what a stumper that must be for you. I guess you are one of those magnificent people that has decided what to discover before you discover it. Yup, I can imagine all those great minds of the planet, like Galileo waking up one day and saying "hmm today I am going to discover that the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around.

Yup, I have heard these stories before, and watched some so called "IT training". I remember one session that was particularly fruitful to me because I once shared a training session with one. She went up to the front, put on one of those power point sessions, told everybody to follow her step by step. She even used a powerful analogy of staying on the tour boat...too bad some never even got on, and where lost for the longest time.

That afternoon it was my turn. I gave them about 10 minutes of what the final product should look like and let them go at it. The thing was, that during the morning session, I watched the users/my clients. They all had different approaches and by watching them, I knew a lot about them. There were the quiet ones that would go about the work, asking for help. There were others that liked to talk and socialize while doing it. I clustered them and even suggested that they did not have to do an individual project, that they could do one together. The solitary braniacs that got the project done early were sent to help other co-workers, adding to the team spirit.

And for a long time afterwards, it was easy to support them. Why? Cause I knew the user, and I knew how to support the user. Some only need a manual, some need a social event, some need hand holding, it doesn't matter, they are all valid ways of proceeding, diverse maybe but valid and that makes them right.

Maybe you should take your head out of the server's asshole and take a look at your clients and try to gain some respect towards them instead of pouring out the total contempt you have demonstrated here.

It's still missing encrypted data store and true push email. Yes I a) know what I am talking about and b) work in IT management for a Fortune 200.

Without those = FAIL, at least in large corporate environments.

Thank you for sharing information about your participation in the iPhone 2.0 beta. Most of the beta program's I've been part of have required a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Did Apple require an NDA for the iPhone 2.0 beta?

When will apple fan boys pull their butts out of their collective asses. Without IT folks everyone else at the company might as well go home. Without IT you have no access so get used to it. Leave your unsecured little toy home and grow up. If its not allowed then you won't be using it. Jobs isn't god so stop praying to his golden cow already.

Michael: If its not allowed then you won't be using it.

Yeah, that's what the disablers of technology always say. And every single battle that IT has fought with the user, they have lost.

Get used to technology outstripping your usefulness, especially if you know nothing but Windows.