Microsoft Exchange Active Sync is code that lets Windows Mobile devices sync with Exchange Server, receive push e-mail and implement a range of security options, such as remote data wipe and encrypted connections. ActiveSync is licensed and used by other platforms such as iPhone. In fact, the iPhone's expanded ActiveSync support helps to account for its inroads into the enterprise, despite the fact Apple does not and will not provide an enterprise-scale security and management framework comparable to Microsoft or RIM.

The unanswered question is how much of this infrastructure is supported in Windows Phone 7? As Brix's comment above suggests, there are hints that some of this rich capability will be lost, at least in the first release of the operating system. Will the mobile VPN still be supported?

6. Microsoft Office and SharePoint

From the user perspective, the most visible enterprise connection in Windows Phone 7 is the "Office Hub" location, with the ability to create and edit Microsoft Office documents, including Word, Powerpoint and Excel, and support for SharePoint, Microsoft's widely adopted enterprise collaboration platform. (See Network World's .)

"The Office Hub is the tip of the spear and SharePoint is part of that," says Charlie Kindel, partner group program manager for the Windows Phone application platform and developer experience at Microsoft. "There's a huge development platform associated with both of them. All this is [now] available on the phone."