Cisco VPN for iPhone
Inside IBM, we've been running a successful Apple iPhone pilot for the past several months. We've been using Lotus Mobile Connect (LMC) clientless-VPN to provide connectivity to the IBM internal network so users can use the Safari web browser on the iPhone to access e-mail, calendar and contact via the iNotes Ultralite interface. Initially, SSO was not enabled so users needed to authenticate first for the VPN and then again for iNotes Ultralite. However, with SSO enabled this significantly improves the user experience as users only need to enter a single userid and password.
That said, a key limitation of Lotus Mobile Connect clientless-VPN is the fact that each site the user wants to access on the iPhone needs to be pre-configured on the LMC server. The desire is to be able to access the entire corporate intranet from the iPhone. To address this limitation, IBM is testing the Cisco VPN that is included out of the box on the iPhone. An IBM-developed iPhone profile pre-configures the VPN as well as required a device password to lock the device.
Initial experiences have been positive and we've also been testing this solution on Mac PC's as well. IBM CIO corporate strategy is to expand smartphone device support beyond Blackberry to include Symbian S60 and iPhone in addition to other devices. With the success of iNotes Ultralite web-browser access we're exploring offering tiered mobile services, from both IBM and employee-owned devices, with both browser and push-mail solutions.
That said, a key limitation of Lotus Mobile Connect clientless-VPN is the fact that each site the user wants to access on the iPhone needs to be pre-configured on the LMC server. The desire is to be able to access the entire corporate intranet from the iPhone. To address this limitation, IBM is testing the Cisco VPN that is included out of the box on the iPhone. An IBM-developed iPhone profile pre-configures the VPN as well as required a device password to lock the device.
Initial experiences have been positive and we've also been testing this solution on Mac PC's as well. IBM CIO corporate strategy is to expand smartphone device support beyond Blackberry to include Symbian S60 and iPhone in addition to other devices. With the success of iNotes Ultralite web-browser access we're exploring offering tiered mobile services, from both IBM and employee-owned devices, with both browser and push-mail solutions.
