THE APPLE ICLOUD: THE ENTERPRISE MOBILITY PERSPECTIVE

PHILIPPE WINTHROP

Yesterday's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) had a bunch of announcements, including MacOS X "Lion," iOS 5 and of course the iCloud….Apple's response to the continuing trend of putting everything in "the cloud."  While I wasn't able to watch the blogosphere's play by play recount of the event, I was able to catch up on all of yesterday's commentary.  Candidly, I was a little underwhelmed by the announcements…particularly as I had expected something far more innovative or "game changing" from the good folks in Cupertino. But then I read something that referenced a quote from Steve Jobs.

"iCloud stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices. It automatically uploads it, stores it, and pushes it to all your devices."

That's pretty impressive.  I buy an app from the AppStore and it will auto-magically install itself on all my iOS devices.  Same goes for all my music, photos, files….everything….auto-magically.

Wait a second.  Everything? As in, everything including my corporate apps, data, etc.????

While that may sound fantastic for the individual, it actually sent a chill up my spine from an enterprise mobility perspective.

Now don't get me wrong.  I am a big fan of all things Cloud…especially the Mobile Cloud.  At it's core, it's about accessing information anywhere, at any time….from wherever it may be located.  That is an incredibly powerful statement when you think about it.  But as I often like to quote Stan Lee, "With great power comes great responsibility."

How does the iCloud handle corporate information?  Does it auto-magically sync up all my work apps as well as the data on those devices?  That can in one perspective be very compelling, but what about the scenario where an organization may actaully just want the iPad app to be on the iPad and NOT on the iPhone.  What if there are certain kinds of apps or data that the company may want to have on just one device and NOT the other?  How do you deal with application authorization/authentication or making sure that data is being encrypted on BOTH devices?  There are no official answers yet from Apple on these matters.

Hence why I believe that in the Mobile Cloud, enterprise mobility management – and most specifically mobile device management and mobile application management will be all the more important.  The Cloud – and Apple's iCloud – will bring a lot of opportunities for innovation, but that doesn't change the basic need for policy management and enforcement, as well as secure access to corporate applications and data on your mobile devices.

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