iPhone for the enterprise? It's possible, says Sybase

I wrote recently about why the iPhone is not ready for the enterprise, in spite of the recent release of the iPhone 3.0 update. Well, it appears that the folks over at Sybase agree too. Anyhow, I requested for further comments relating to this, and Senthil Krishnapillai, director of product management at Sybase responded via email with additional information.

Now, Sybase is obviously keen to promote its iAnywhere Mobile Office product, an application that promises to securely extend email and business processes to mobile workers, and is also available for the iPhone. What sparked my interest was how Sybase recognized the limitations of consumer devices like the iPhone to operate in an enterprise environment, and attempts to address these limitations via a sandbox approach.

Essentially, information that is corporate owned and delivered is clearly demarcated from what belongs to the employee, creating a natural separation between the two types of data. Any security policies configured by enterprise IT is enforced only within the enterprise sandbox, leaving the "consumer" half of the device untouched.

The result is that it is possible to walk the fine line between enterprise needs on a personally-owned device. Of course, the solution offered by iAnywhere Mobile Office isn't completely unique. However, its support for both Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange, and for devices--which includes Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian--could be what sets it apart.

A lot obviously hinges on its manageability and the exact enterprise controls that are available--which I did not have a chance to look into. It might be worth checking out, though.

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