The iPhone 3G could make mobile management legit, if only...

Computerworld - Here's one way to get your IT manager to approve your new iPhone 3G for work: Get him hooked on it, too.

And how do you do that? By letting him know how Apple's new smart phone could allow him to troubleshoot the network on weekends as easily as answering a text message in a movie theatre...and by convincing him to go where neither the original iPhone nor the dominant BlackBerry seem to have taken the systems management crowd.

Letting systems administrators monitor and manage desktops, servers and networks from their smart phones isn't new. Apps such as Rove Inc.'s Mobile Admin and Mobile Desktop and Conceivium Business Solutions Inc.'s MobileControl have been available on the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile for half a decade or more.

But for serious network troubleshooting, smart phones have remained far less useful than even a laptop to most IT managers.

"You need screen real estate, a multitasking GUI, fast network response, a full keyboard, a broad set of easily accessible tools and deep client functionality," wrote Andi Mann, an analyst at Enterprise Management Associates, in an e-mail. "Mobile devices have none of these."

The first iPhone fixed some of those problems. Its CPU, memory and storage surpassed other smart phones. It introduced what was then the largest 3.5-in. diagonal, 480-by-320-pixel screen for a smart phone, and a true, standards-compliant Web browser in Safari.

"Apple got the visual experience right," said Todd Christy, president and CTO of mobile management software vendor Pyxis Mobile.

The iPhone 3G released last week adds more features that potentially make it a true remote management tool.

The handset has fast, ubiquitous Internet connectivity via Wi-Fi and cellular protocols such as UMTS and HSDPA. Remote network access is possible via a Cisco IPsec VPN that Conceivium CEO Jonas Gyllensvaan said is "equally secure" as the BlackBerry's. And Apple offers a free, open software development kit to encourage the same independent software vendors it shunned in the iPhone's first release last June.

All of these changes, along with the addition of Microsoft's ActiveSync technology, could start to change the view prevalent among systems administrators that flashy smart phones like the iPhone are "executive jewelry" that are a pain to secure and support, according to Ahmed Datoo, vice president of product marketing at mobile management software vendor Zenprise.

That hostility is deep, though, and often rooted in envy. "I'm surprised how often my customers show up with a really old BlackBerry or tell me how frustrated they are to support BlackBerries but not get one themselves," Datoo said.

But Conceivium's Gyllensvaan thinks that's changing. Among the customers he talks with, "the whole mentality has changed in the last 18 months. Before, IT people never got the fun devices. Now, they're starting to get to test -- and approve them -- before the executive bigwigs get them," he said.