Surprise! Apple has more enterprise savvy than Microsoft

You hear it all the time from IT staff: Apple doesn’t understand enterprise needs, and as more and more users adopt Macs, iPhones, and iPads, you can see the froth emerging from their mouths. Apple changes its decade-old mobile connectors and it’s evil incarnate. Apple releases iOS 6 and IT complains that 60 percent of users adopted it in the first week, before IT could qualify it. Apple releases new Macs and IT is sure users will order them without permission, leaving IT unable again to validate them. Then there are the dangers of iTunes, iCloud, and Bonjour — all designed to destroy IT’s carefully planned information architecture and security model. Those damned iToys!

Boo hoo.

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The reality is very different than these IT folks understand or will admit. They’re pining over the slow death of what they know and love: BlackBerrys, Windows PCs, three-year product road maps, and five-year rollout strategies. Apple killed the BlackBerry with the iPhone; it’s killing Windows PCs (thanks in no small part to Microsoft) with iPads and Macs; the new iPad Mini promises to bring the tablet revolution to field forces and further change the tools wielded by information workers; and Apple has made a mockery of Soviet-style planning schedules with its annual iOS releases, constant update model in its App Store, frequent but unpredictable hardware updates, and biennial or faster OS X updates.

Worse for these IT folks, Microsoft seems to have adopted the Apple way in some areas. Yes, we got nine months to test and observe the train wreck that is Windows 8, but very few people saw a Surface tablet before it shipped — as if it were an iPad!

But step back a moment and see what Apple has actually done that is enterprise-savvy. You’ll notice that Apple has focused on the so-called front office, the tools that users work with, and it’s done so in ways that are programmatic, secure, and enterprise-enabling. Many in IT seem to miss that, concentrated instead on their data centers and servers rather than the frontline technologies that drive profit and growth.

iOS brought mobile security to the masses

When iOS 4 was released in summer 2010, it supported Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policies and offered additional security and management APIs of its own. Thanks to iOS 4, any business of any size could impose on mobile device users basic controls, such as encryption, password enforcement, and remote lock and wipe. Suddenly, the most popular email server in use could automatically apply these protections to any iOS device that tried to access the network, authorized or not. IT should have been ecstatic — the beloved BlackBerry Enterprise Server couldn’t do that.

Likewise, the extra APIs gave rise to the entire mobile device management (MDM) industry, which has let enterprises apply controls more granularly where believed to be necessary. Is it any wonder that the iPhone is now the dominant business platform? But Apple’s adoption of EAS and creation of a vibrant MDM market did more than secure Apple devices: Google’s Android followed suit, if not as strongly, creating a cross-platform management capability that had never before existed. Even RIM adopted that approach in its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and forthcoming BlackBerry 10 smartphones, while keeping a version of BES that lets IT straitjacket users to its heart’s content.

Microsoft, ironically, was the last major mobile vendor to support this pan-device security model, though its own EAS is the original enabler. Only last week did Microsoft ship a version of its Windows Phone operating system that approached what 2010’s iOS 4 delivered. But Windows Phone 8 remains far behind today’s iOS and even Android in its security capabilities.

Meanwhile, iOS has significantly increased not only the controls but the configuration capabilities in iOS, giving IT more tools than ever to manage and secure mobile devices. Those same tools are also available for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion, so IT has a unified path to managing users’ PCs, not just their mobile devices. It’s Microsoft that insists on using old-school, separate technology to manage PCs. Anyone managed by those tools knows how unfriendly they are for both users and admins.

Apple has rationalized field force devices, too You rarely hear about it, but Apple has quietly extended its reach into the kinds of custom devices you once had to buy at great price from the likes of Symbol Technology, wherein each device is its own universe for support and integration.

The iPod Touch and iPad — and no doubt soon the iPad Mini, whose small size will be very attractive in many retail and field environments — are the platforms Apple uses to serve the large enterprise constituency made of people in the field. Knowledge workers — execs, sales, marketing, and engineering, primarily — get all the attention these days, especially around mobile information management, but field forces are just as important.

Already in retail, the iPod Touch is emerging as the main point-of-sale terminal, thanks to its easy UI, support for standard networks, secured credentials, ability to print, and availability of plug-in swipe terminals, as well as the fact it can be secured and configured over the air. The iPad is taking a similar role among insurance adjusters, support technicians, event producers, aircraft pilots, medical technicians, battlefield monitors, and others.

Apple’s iOS 6 has added a series of controls and configurations aimed squarely at such field use. You can lock users to a specific app, making the iPad into an appliance. You can even restrict specific controls in an app, letting you access commercial apps in appliance mode while disabling features that may prove troublesome, such as connections to in-app stores.

Meanwhile, where is Microsoft? Nowhere. At the same time, the older guard, such as Motorola Solutions (which purchased Symbol), remains focused exclusively on delivering one-off proprietary devices. It makes more sense to take a widely available platform such as the iPod Touch and iPad, which are portable and designed for use away from a desk. From there, it can turn into whatever appliance is needed through software and add-on hardware. This approach reduces management overhead for businesses and increases operational flexibility for those who can purpose the same device for different needs and get additional units as needed almost anywhere.

This is exactly what Square’s founders realized when they developed their card-swiping plug-in accessory for iOS devices, enabling the major shift now under way in sales terminals — a big deal in an industry that has been talking about such change for more than a decade, without effect.

Like Microsoft, Apple makes new OS testing easy For years now, Apple let individuals and companies sign up for a small fee as iOS and OS X developers. As a result, there’s no excuse for a new iOS or OS X release to take any IT organization by surprise. Microsoft, to its credit, has also long offered early access to Windows through its developer network. But whereas I never hear IT complain about being blindsided by Microsoft OSes, I frequently hear that criticism leveled at Apple OSes. That’s on IT, not Apple.

You also hear complaints about lack of early access to new Apple devices, though you don’t get that access in other consumer products, either. Companies like Dell and Hewlett-Packard have long offered PC configurations promised not to change for several years, so IT could be assured of consistency for disk images and the like — which is what these IT complaints are really seeking. Forget it; there’s no such thing as an install image for an iOS device. You install the updates, and based on the apps associated to the user account, the relevant apps are installed from the App Store. Configurations are transferred via iTunes or iCloud, or they’re provisioned by profiles.

That approach is more architecturally reasonable, as it gets away from bit-level dependencies that PC suffered from. Need proof? Microsoft is doing exactly that with Windows 8.

What matters more is that the OS and apps you have are guaranteed to work for at least a certain period. Apple has, with a very few exceptions, kept compatibility for a minimum of two years in its OS updates — aligning to the typical lifespan of mobile devices. Given how fast technology evolves, that’s reasonable. PCs’ lifespans are more typically three to five years, but when a new Windows version comes out, not all can still support it. I don’t get what’s the Apple-specific issue here. I also know IT got spoiled by Windows XP’s 11-year life span, but that was a consequence of the Vista disaster — Microsoft never wanted people to hang on to any version of Windows that long.

The bottom line is that Apple keeps compatibility for a reasonable amount of time (unlike, say, the Android community), even if we don’t always like the fact that we’ll have to make the change at some point. Supporting the new Lightning connector will cost money and involve the hassle of working with two connector types and needing adapters for a while, just as Apple’s transition away from FireWire will mean a similar transition for storage and other devices.

Apple has maneuvered Microsoft into the back end — except for Office I think what really gets in IT’s craw is that Apple has quietly if doggedly reinvented the front office expectations of technology. The company has made usability a prime criterion (especially because IT is typically atrocious at usability) and broken down the work/personal divide in our technology, in reflection of the movement that already occurred in terms of availability expectations, schedule flexibility, and work at home.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has fooled around with major OSes, server products, and Office versions whose major benefit is to sell more licenses, not enable users where their needs are greatest. Look how convoluted SharePoint has become, how irrelevant the last several versions of Office have been, and how useless Lync is. Look how Microsoft has tried to out-Apple Apple in delivering proprietary products and ecosystems, such as Office and Office 365. At the same time, Microsoft continues to deliver strong server tools, giving real value to the data center back end.

Ironically, Apple has leveraged Microsoft’s back-end services in key areas, mostly related to Exchange and EAS. That smoothed iOS’s entry into the enterprise, where about 70 percent of businesses use Exchange. That’s good for Microsoft’s server business, but not so much for its Windows arm.

Also, Apple hasn’t taken on Office. Sure, it offers its iWork trio, but except for Keynote, iWork is no threat to Office. If anything, Apple seems to have abandoned iWork strategically — the last major update was in winter 2009. Perhaps it hopes Microsoft will port Office to the iPad, which would cement iOS’s enterprise presence. That’s the last thing Microsoft wants, but if Apple devices continue to gain market share, it may need to cry uncle and support iOS rather than lose Office revenues. It feels very much like a game of chicken.

At the end of the day, while Microsoft catered to IT and lucrative site licenses, Apple enabled the changing fundamental needs of the business. It made mobile computing and a flexible front office not only possible but normal. Many in IT are only now realizing the importance of user-facing technology as an enabler, after years of seeing it as a burden. Like it or not, Apple beat them to the punch.

This article, “Surprise! Apple has more enterprise savvy than Microsoft,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Galen Gruman’s Smart User blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.