Saw this site put up by Citrix today–www.ipadsatwork.com. I thought it was an interesting approach–pitching iPads in the enterprise by making the iPad a glorified dumb terminal, via the Citrix Receiver, for accessing your Windows desktop and apps. While I agree that this overcomes a lot of challenges around managing iPads on enterprise networks, it sort of ignores the elephant in the room–one of the biggest values of the iPad is running iPad apps! And ond of the biggest challenge for enterprise IT folks around iPad apps is the total lack of visibility and control into those apps. So, while I suppose using the iPad as a glorified Windows dumb client helps, I think it sort of misses the point 🙂
Check out Apple’s document on iPad in the enterprise. There is no total lack of visibility and control of the device. With provisioning, you can control which apps will run, which apps can be downloaded (if any) from iTunes.
You can install apps over the air, not just via cabled iTunes. You can send the provisioning document over the air, or host it on an internal website. You can set up an “image” of an iPad with the provisioning certificate and desired apps via iTunes, much as you would a PC distributed to staff.
Good stuff. I would love to see that doc–do you have a link to it?
Darren
Seems to be a few docs here: http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/resources/
Yep, they’re starting to make progress. Its still a disparate set of tools unfortunately, and not totally complete for many “enterprise” class requirements, especially around security controls. However, I suspect it will get there quickly, given current demand.