Time for Apple to ‘Think Different’ about corporate IT?

10 years ago

“Apple Inc. made clear Monday at its annual developer conference that it was opening its famously closed operating system environment in the hopes of attracting more innovative apps to its ecosystem,” Michael Hickins reports for The Wall Street Journal. “But these changes could make Apple devices less secure, and would seem to require an adjustment by Apple to how it relates to corporate IT departments, according to Stephen Gillett, chief operating officer at Symantec Corp., and former CIO of Starbucks Corp.”

“The bid is clearly a way of driving more apps to the ecosystem Apple hopes to develop around a new slate of devices it’s likely to introduce this fall. It also signals a significant change with how Apple deals with the outside world,” Hickins reports. “It is allowing developers deeper into its operating system than before – for example by allowing apps to interact with its onboard keyboard, fingerprint reader and cloud storage systems.”

“Allowing developers deeper into the OS implies a trade-off, and Mr. Gillett argues that Apple should be open about that,” Hickins reports. “‘You trade access for security… They traded access to get innovation… That will come at the expense of closed-system stability and security. There was a reason [the OS] was closed before,’ Mr. Gillettt said during an interview.”

“According to Mr. Gillett, ‘Apple has been a huge antagonist to IT,” harkening back to Steve Jobs’ comment about CIOs being the ‘orifice’ of an organization,” Hickins reports. “Mr. Gillett feels that Apple should do more to embrace CIOs and the enterprise more broadly. ‘I’m waiting for Tim Cook to say ‘we want to have a relationship, and no longer view you as the orifice,” he said.”

MacDailyNews Take: This particular IT doofus sounds like an orifice if there ever was one. It’s dinosaurs like this that mired the world in the Dark Ages of Personal Computing, stagnating progress (in the corporate setting, at least) for some two decades. The sooner these doofuses retire and leave matters to people with open minds who understand the full breadth of technology, not just what the Microsoft dinosaurs tell them to think, the better.

Instead of spouting off baseless tripe to the WSJ, Gillett should be attending WWDC sessions and learning something about OS X and iOS for a change.

“Not everyone believes Apple has stiff-armed IT departments. Christy Wyatt, chief executive of mobility applications vendor Good Technology Corp., says Apple has ‘done quite a lot in the last year to enable [mobile device management].’ Ms. Wyatt spoke with CIO Journal Tuesday on the sidelines of a Good customer event in New York. According to recent Good Technology report, Apple dominates device activations in the enterprise world with iOS reporting 72% of total device activations in the first quarter. The report covers more than 5,000 organizations in 180 countries,” Hickins reports. “She noted that Apple recently provided tools allowing IT departments to upload apps to mobile devices, and has given corporate IT departments more time to review upcoming changes to its iOS mobile operating system.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Well, it’s nice to end on some common sense, we suppose.

Smart businesses are transforming, and have already transformed, their technology with Apple’s very secure Macs, iPads, and iPhones. Those who don’t are falling further behind with each passing day.

If your employees who use computers aren’t yet using Apple devices on a daily basis, you need need a new IT person.

More info: apple.com/business.