Who's supporting Apple in business?

the_technocrat

I'm looking for ideas to support an expected influx of iPads next year, and for iPhones that 10% of my users have been issued by the company.

Would like to have controls on both iPad and iPhone similar to what we have for BlackBerry via the BES.

Requirements:

1. Policy enforcement (the rules apply to you, you can't just turn off the security measures)
2. remote wipe
3. remote screen lock with info (If found, return to this salesman at this hotel, etc)
4. screen lock controls (a defined requirement for screen lock password lengths and idle timeouts)
5. self-wipe policy (wrong password 10x wipes the handset to factory specs
6. OTA server-side backups of handset info. Yes, they have iTunes, but no guarantee they use it...

kryyst

Exchanges server can handle most of those options.

the_technocrat

whaa? What client on the device talks to Exchange?

Cyclonite

The built-in mail app supports Exchange.

the_technocrat

Oh, we have mail delivery fine. It's the security policy and remote wipe capabilities we need for Apple mobile products.

kryyst

Exchange can do most of those through its policy capabilities through ActiveSync (exchange 2007 that is I'm not familiar with past versions).

See pictures for all the control options. Then you can do more specific rules through Group Policy on user account restrictions if you need to.

kryyst

More pictures

the_technocrat

Interesting. Looks like these are screenshots from the Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Web Administration Tool add-in for Exchange Server 2003SP2 and up?

We've never needed this before, been a BlackBerry-only shop. Is that where you're getting these screenshots from?

kryyst

Those are from our Exchange 2007 servers. We currently only have 2 people (myself and my other I/T compatriot) that have non-blackberry devices syncing in so I really haven't started playing with any of the strong security options. Only that I know they are there.

Plus the devices are our own personal devices so I'm not about to start device wiping and company locking them down. But setting it up is pretty painless as long as all your ssl certificates are setup right. That caused us the biggest grief with active sync because of the difference between our public domain ssl and our internal domain handling.

the_technocrat

Oh wow, yeah, I see the 'Manage Mobile Device' option in the 'Actions' pane on the right when I highlight someone with an iPhone in the Exchange Management Console under 'Recipient Configuration' > 'Mailbox'.

Never even saw that before. +1 rep.

Only options I get in that window are to disestablish the link between a person and their current device, or to wipe the device.

Looks like all of the other mobile security policy management options are in the Properties of 'Organization Configuration' > 'Client Access' > 'Default Policy'

Nice!

fatcat

I thought you said in the car you weren't gonna let those bitches get iPads....

Annes

The business always gets what it wants. Thanks for the heads up, kryyst! I was vaguely aware of that functionality in Exchange 2010 but didn't realize it could be used to control all manner of mobile devices. It would work on Android-based phones as well, correct?

kryyst

I only know for sure it works with windows mobile and iphone/ipad device with OS 3.2+. I wouldn't be surprised if it works with android but as I have no devices to test I can't confirm it, nor have I looked into i.

the_technocrat

Annes wrote:

The business always gets what it wants. Thanks for the heads up, kryyst! I was vaguely aware of that functionality in Exchange 2010 but didn't realize it could be used to control all manner of mobile devices. It would work on Android-based phones as well, correct?

Seems like it - one of our users using ActiveSync on a VZ Droid Incredible is showing 'Android-EAS/0.1' as his device name, and I have the ability to remotely wipe that device, but am unable to test it.

It seems to be up to the device manufacturer to decide whether or not to listen to all the specific parts of ActiveSync's capabilities. Apparently in iOS4, Apple made the iPhone start listening to kill commands, where previously it would only listen to email/calendar/contact sync.

the_technocrat

fatcat wrote:

I thought you said in the car you weren't gonna let those bitches get iPads....

Yeah, my 2 points to them were:

1. For a company so concerned about cost control, there doesn't seem to be any business reason to buy iPads and pay for mobile service on them other than "We'll look cool and that will get us business" (which is BS)
2. We (at the time) didn't have a way to remotely wipe the device if (when) it gets lost/stolen.

They decided to concentrate on #2 before #1, so now I have to resolve #2 before they'll talk about #1...

kryyst

For us we don't see a use in them either as a general tool. I have my own ipad and I use it to vnc/remote control into machines when I'm off the grid. A laptop with a 3g card could do the same but in canada the data plan on an ipad is cheaper and no contract so that's a savings there. I also use it to do simple presentations and what not - again all things I can and do with a laptop but the ipad is faster to do them on and looks slicker then hell when you are doing it.

Really there's nothing I can't do on the ipad that I couldn't do on a laptop for work and arguably easier on the laptop as well. Which is why primarily I do use my laptop.

Now that being said when I want to look slick and show off a bit I use the ipad because it does catch heads and draws attention when I want to do so. Also the interface does make some things significantly easier. Case in point reading books/manuals/tech sites.

I have a lot of reference manuals on it. Those make the thing invaluable to me. Reading documents on it is so much nicer then doing so on a laptop even if I have dual monitors going. It's the perfect tool for that. While there can be glare at times it's insignificant. Before my ipad I had an ereader. They are great for reading books in ereader format. But for navigating a pdf they suck. They are slow, cumbersome and unless the pdf is designed around a 7" screen they go from suck to abysmal.

So are ipads in work needed no. Do they have uses, certainly. Can *I* live without mine anymore? Probably not.

the_technocrat

Interesting. yeah, they're want to do ppt presentations with them in restaurants, etc. I can see that. Just need to have them converted to PDF, and no more embedded animations / wipes / multimedia, but...