At the risk of being branded an Apple fanboy, I have to say Apple’s plans for the forthcoming iPhone OS 4.0 will vault the iPhone past all mobile competitors as the best mobile business device — period. Until now, the iPhone’s capabilities for security, app management and distribution, device management, and so forth have been middling at best, creating a real difference versus the BlackBerry for large businesses. In turn, this has let IT dismiss the iPhone as a toy and caused many IT shops to break out in hives when someone wants to use an iPhone on their network, though it’s the device that people want.
That’s about to change.
Important to most Corporate Security Officers –> Encryption < --, well Apple has a way of dealing with this now.
Data encryption and VPN security
iPhone OS 4.0 adds two encryption capabilities that will help calm some IT fears about iPhone adoption: It will encrypt email and any attachments with your PIN, and Apple is offering an API that lets apps encrypt all the data they store. SSL VPN support for both Cisco and Juniper networks is also being added.
Although more and more CIOs I speak with are finding ways to adopt the iPhone in its current state, this set of changes will go a long way to accelerating that adoption.