iPhone 5 in the enterprise: Pain or gain?

13.09.2012
If the new iPhone 5 with LTE wireless sells as well as analysts predict, its impact on IT shops already wrestling with the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) trend could be dramatic.

Some analysts predict higher cellular network data costs borne by corporations and greater security risks with the new iPhone 5, which .

On the other hand, three IT managers said they believe the iPhone 5 will be manageable from a security and wireless data service cost aspect. One CIO said it will probably be a boon to worker productivity.

"Business runs today in real time, and workers want to do things fast, so from that perspective, the iPhone 5's LTE can provide that real-time capability," said SAP AG CIO Oliver Bussmann in an interview minutes after the iPhone 5 was announced. "The future is a mobile one, and we're constantly looking at any desktop app that we can move to mobile. One of my responsibilities as CIO is to enable a new user experience when possible."

Bussmann said he supports 60,000 workers globally, including more than 40,000 smartphones and tablets that are managed through SAP's Sybase Afaria Mobile Device Management tool, which SAP also sells to other corporations. Afaria can also be used to provide telecom expense management so that Bussmann gets automated warnings when data usage thresholds are exceeded.

SAP, like many large corporations, also negotiates flat data rates with wireless carriers to keep down data costs, Bussmann said.