iPhone management software has enabled businesses to use iPhones as their primary mobile device with confidence that sensitive information can be protected. When the iPhone was first introduced, it was light years behind BlackBerry in terms of security. RIM had spent years developing and refining their Enterprise Server years before the iPhone was even conceived. The Enterprise Server allowed businesses to manage all of their BlackBerrys with ease, and it enabled them to keep data secure. If a BlackBerry was lost or stolen, the company’s IT department could easily delete the data within minutes. This could all be accomplished over the wireless network, making BlackBerry the most secure smartphone on the market.
When the iPhone was first introduced, it was mainly considered to be, and was marketed as, a consumer level product with a heavy emphasis placed on the iPhone’s game play, easy of use, and intuitive navigation of email and the Internet. But as the iPhone grew in popularity, business people became increasingly frustrated that they could not use their iPhone for work. Many business people juggled an iPhone for personal use, and a BlackBerry for business use; this solution was far from optimal or elegant, but for those business people who wanted to enjoy the features of the iPhone, it was the only one.
Today, everything has changed. Finally Apple and other third-party developers launched iPhone management software that gives businesses just as much control over the confidential data on their employee’s iPhone as BlackBerry’s Enterprise Server does. But, improved iPhone management for security purposes was not enough to make the iPhone ready for primetime; to be truly ready, iPhone’s email software needed to support Microsoft Outlook, the most widely used email service for businesses. Fortunately, Apple did make the iPhone Outlook capable and today, business people can sync their work email to their iPhone with the ease of a BlackBerry.
iphone management software added a few more incentives for businesses. When you have a network of hundreds of iPhones, administrating every device individually would be impossible. iPhone management software also introduced patch management for the iPhone. With this kind of iPhone management, it is possible to install software updates and security updates on hundreds or even thousands of iPhones, all at the same time.
