“The ranks of enterprise IT appear to be arrayed shoulder to shoulder—in Roman Legion-style—against the invasion of the iPhone likely to start within days after Apple releases the device on June 29,” David Morgenstern writes for eWeek. “However, the defense may be futile. After all, the horde carrying the forthcoming Apple phone won’t be barbarians; rather, the very folks doing the work, and worse, some may well be the boss,.”
“This culture clash between enterprise users and the IT department keeps growing. The analyst company Gartner calls this trend ‘consumerization,’ where the consumers of a technology drive its adoption into the enterprise, rather than coming from IT. The iPhone is just the latest candidate for contention over computing environments,” Morgenstern writes.”
“Gartner Research Vice President Steve Kleynhans said the expectations of many users in the enterprise have changed. The PC generation, who were teenagers a decade ago, now are the ‘MBA hotshots running major projects for your organization,'” Morgenstern writes. “‘The users today aren’t looking to the IT group to tell them what technology can do. They know what it can do. What they look for is guidance on making it work,’ Kleynhans said. However, to these new customers, the current IT experience ‘stands for the inhibitor of technology,’ Kleynhans said. He observed that there is a basic conflict growing between the pushing clients and the IT traffic cops.”
“Another worry of enterprise IT managers may be that the iPhone will expand on the iPod’s ‘halo effect’ for the Macintosh,” Morgenstern writes. “Paul Camillos, partner at consultancy Ephemeral Technologies in Sydney, Australia, said some of his clients have already warned of increased Mac interest from the iPhone hype. ‘One IT manager I know said that there was no way that he would allow a Mac into his environment,’ he said. ‘He’d rather quit and said he would lobby strongly to all management against the introduction of the iPhone in case it acted as a precursor to management wanting Macs.'”
Morgenstern writes, “Well, the iPhone won’t hit Australia until the end of the year, so this guy will have a bit of a breather. However, he may want to start brushing up his resume if he’s going to take this ‘no iPhone and Mac or I quit’ stance.”
Highly-recommended full article, with much more, including how high level executives and key employees will force IT to deal with iPhone (plus how such employees are already dumping Windows and upgrading to Apple Macs), here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “doc” for the heads up.]
This is a beautiful article that gets everything right. Please click here to read Morgenstern’s full article. IT is, to put it nicely, highly resistant to positive change. That anonymous Aussie IT guy is emblematic of the vast majority of IT guys worldwide. We’ve met many just like him during years of fighting for Macs in many companies. They don’t get it. They cling to the familiar even though vastly superior options exist. They ignore a superior platform, believing in and spreading myths and FUD. They waste company resources through stubbornness and ignorance. Whether due to the desire for job security, Stockholm Syndrome, Cognitive Dissonance, or some other inanity, IT is long overdue for a massive attitude adjustment. Hey, Mr. IT guy, the tech dark ages (caused in large part by you) are coming to an end. If you don’t like it… tough. Many of you have proven that you can’t lead and that you’ll only follow Microsoft. The time has come for you to finally get the hell out of the way.
Today, Carl Howe writes for SeekingAlpha, “Gartner, IDC, and The Wall Street Journal are busy claiming that businesses should shun the iPhone, assuming that it can’t sync with Microsoft Exchange (not true) and that it will be a security threat to their networks (also not true, especially if they are already running Microsoft Exchange). C’mon guys, get a clue. The real drivers behind these stories are not business leaders (who are undoubtedly trying to figure out ways to get one for themselves), but IT shops who, as Dilbert puts it, are the preventers of technology. Businesses will reject the iPhone just the same way that they rejected the PC originally — yelling and screaming while executives bring them to work anyway.”
Full article here.
IT = inhibitor of technology – I like that.
I salivate at the thought of IT standing down.
All day I have to go around them in convincing schools about the superiority of Apple.
It’s not easy since most schools put ALL the tech decision-making on IT.
The Oz IT goons are much worse than those in other parts, and most of them have unions, run by Scottish and Irish losers, who couldn’t make it in the UK. When you ask them what time it is, they’ll answer, “1920.”
Balmer is looking for a guy to keep his kids away from the ipone until Redmond can produce a brown version
Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile!
Of course – And all of the threatening languague in the world, and getting all of your best buds who write for big and small tech magazines to write articles with pseudo intimidating rhetoric, isn’t going to change a thing.
Welcome to the world of Apple in an even bigger and more important way than the iPod was.
Hasn’t anyone and everyone had enough domination, doesn’t anyone and everyone want choice by now?
Most IT guys ably prove the aphorism that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. Let ’em retire and allow the young pups in!
IT = Inhibitor of Technology.
Brilliant! The
These are the dorks and nerds from your junior high AV department who got film strip projectors to work with a record player. Microsoft gave them a place not just to feel at home with their own kind, but to be needed by others … AND to be FEARED.
I don’t want Macs to rule the world. Wherever there’s a need to play computerized solitaire, there’s a place for Windows.
Excellent!!!!
What I have dealt with for over 15 years.
What’s more some Security experts are calling the iphone a “security nightmare,” it will “turn your security team into zombies,”
.Mac going down tonight for maintenance. Be cool if it came back up with a few new features for the iPhone and TV.
Viva la Revolución!!!
Viva el commandante Jobs!!!
Attention, AAPL holders:
If you weren’t “long” on your stock before, you should be NOW! The future’s so bright for our once-beleaguered equity, even shades won’t help!
As an Aussie Mac user of 20 years, I for one can’t wait to welcome our new Apple overlords!
I’m not sure what the word is, but what is the opposite of FUD????
No, although I plan to be one of the people getting in line on June 28th to buy the phone for my personal use, this phone is not very good as a business phone.
First Off… Corporate networks (like the company I work for) allow NO webmail whatsoever. It’s blocked along with gaming sites, porn, chat, MySpace, and yes, YouTube.
The thing won’t sync with Notes so I can’t get, not only my corporate email, but the entire corporate database, .. no directories, no access to files, drawings, and specs (which I can do on my blackberry)…
No way to open office document. Yes, this IS a big deal….
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From the posts here, I doubt anyone understands a thing about a corporate information system. Believe me, iTunes, YouTube, watching TV shows, and Duck Hunt are not part of the plan.
Apple should build a “iPhone Business”. Get rid of the YouTube and iPod. Keep all the great touch controls and build it on a slightly smaller form factor. Make it have to ability to at least read office files. Make it capable to interface with corporate servers, ie NOTES, Exchange, and Blackberry.
Afterall, isn’t this EXACTLY what Apple does with it’s Mac computers (Consumer models and Pro Models???)…
I hope to enjoy my iPhone at home and on the road..but at work, I’ll keep my Blackberry. Information is too important to me..
Never over estimate your value to a company. You can always be replaced.
Once again… I am the guy the IT dBags fear — I know both.
former Mac Genius & MCSE = IT Bigots run for the hills.
It’s a great time to be a mac guru.
These legions of D&D playing, mom’s basement dwelling techno nerd IT drones need to realize what they should have years ago, that they do not call the shots, the people they work for do.
Suck it up “real world” IT pro’s. The people are about to speak, and speak to you that they want their iPhones. So turn off wrestling for a weekend and read about how easy it will be to integrate this into your IT structure.
MDN – I don’t think YOU get it (IT) –
First, I LOVE Apple-post-OS-9 but I have to stick up for IT departments.
As we all know, buying a piece of technology is only the start. The training and support involved can be several times the actual purchase price of a piece of hardware.
Imagine the expense of allowing any department to select their own printer. Not only would you have to deal with different printer interfaces (which side of the letterhead goes up?) and printer drivers (why doesn’t the PCS2400xyz work?) but also stock an Office Depot work of inks and toners to support them all. Now, if one breaks….
The point is that there is a cost to allowing that HP Vivera printer into the marketing department, even if it is better than whatever is in there now, and companies routinely have to make decisions based on budget numbers that prevent them from having the “ideal”.
Now I am NOT saying that there isn’t undue FUD goign around about iPhones somehow breaching corporate security – I am saying that you have to give IT departments a break – these people made a career out of technology – and they certainly like and want cool new stuff – but Information Architecture requires an ability to make a commitment for a period of time and stick to that.
The tide is obviously turning for Mac and in a decade, when Apple has inroads into server rooms and corporate traveler’s laps, MDN will find it difficult not to clamor that it doesn’t make any sense to try out Umbutu or whatever new non-Mac tech there is.
Furthermore, any IT ‘pro’ that refuses to even look at Macs or the iPhone is just plain and simply a lazy ass.
“‘He’d rather quit and said he would lobby strongly to all management against the introduction of the iPhone in case it acted as a precursor to management wanting Macs.'”
Memo to the Technosauruses: Get used to this expression.
“You’re fired.”
@Shoeman wrote:
“No way to open Office documents. Yes this IS a big deal…”
Doesn’t Quicklook take care of that? I believe you can read and page through any type of document, including Office files, using it.
I do agree, at least in the short/medium term, that Apple needs to provide iPhone compatibility with corporate Notes, Exchange and Blackberry server systems.
I can’t tell you how many times I heard from the IT guys at companies I worked for in the past that the mac is a “Toy Computer.”
A few years ago I was hired at a nationwide IT VAR. They didn’t have a computer for me initally so I decided to bring in my Mac. You would have thought I was skinning kittens at my cubical when they saw it.
They demanded I unplug it from the network cause I was going to cause company wide failures — it was only then that I told them that I’ve been using it there for about a month and the virus problems EVERYONE else had didn’t effect me.
They got snide and said I couldn’t use it for “Real Work” — so I asked them what that meant…
“You can’t use GroupWise.”
“I have the Mac client right here… it works great”
“You cant use Citrix for the banking intranet”
“Uh, yeah… I can… it’s right here”
They finally gave up and said that I was my own support… which was FINE cause I was faster then those Mountain Dew swilling bastards anyway.
Well the IT department is sure a whip in the nuts.
One of the members in my team, her husband also works in IT in Finance. He’s been told all the negative things about macs, such as full of virus, buggy, lacked a lot of complex features…you name it. And he thought they were describing XP.
Eventually he met me and my ibook.
He played around with expose’ and said… this is fantastic. The features i’ll need to get use to, but yeh, this is really awesome.
I told him this is 10.3.9, we’re on 10.4.9 (this was a few months ago)…
He was sold, not really by me, but really by his ipod.
A few years back, Microsoft tried to invade CSE of UNSW. By offering promotions and prizes to events… we enjoyed the prizes, but only the above average students ended up working for them. The great students avoided microsoft.
And in CSE, it’s either macs or linux. They all hate microsoft.
Unfortunately, UNSW is a great yet small compared to other unis that train Comp Sci students in Visually impaired Basics.
Of course, that business about avoiding iPhone IN ORDER TO avoid dealing with more Macs is just plain idiotic.