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iPads in the Enterprise—running Windows

Saw this site put up by Citrix today–www.ipadsatwork.com. I thought it was an interesting approach–pitching iPads in the enterprise by making the iPad a glorified dumb terminal, via the Citrix Receiver, for accessing your Windows desktop and apps. While I agree that this overcomes a lot of challenges around managing iPads on enterprise networks, it sort of ignores the elephant in the room–one of the biggest values of the iPad is running iPad apps! And ond of the biggest challenge for enterprise IT folks around iPad apps is the total lack of visibility and control into those apps. So, while I suppose using the iPad as a glorified Windows dumb client helps, I think it sort of misses the point

8
DEC

Categories: iPad, VDI

Tags: citrix, ipad, VDI

About the Author:

Darren Mar-Elia is CTO & Founder of SDM Software, Inc. Darren has over 25 years of IT and Software experience in the Microsoft technology area, including serving as a Director in Infrastructure at Charles Schwab, CTO of Windows Management Solutions at Quest Software, and Sr. Director of Product Engineering at DesktopStandard. He has been a Microsoft MVP in Group Policy technology for the last 6 years and has written and spoken on Active Directory, Group Policy and PowerShell topics frequently over the years. He maintains the popular Group Policy resource web site at www.gpoguy.com and has been a contributing editor for Windows IT Pro Magazine since 1997. He has written and contributed to twelve books on Windows. Darren also speaks frequently at conferences on Windows infrastructure topics.

Discussion

4 Comments
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Bokey February 8, 2011

Check out Apple’s document on iPad in the enterprise. There is no total lack of visibility and control of the device. With provisioning, you can control which apps will run, which apps can be downloaded (if any) from iTunes.

You can install apps over the air, not just via cabled iTunes. You can send the provisioning document over the air, or host it on an internal website. You can set up an “image” of an iPad with the provisioning certificate and desired apps via iTunes, much as you would a PC distributed to staff.
(reply)
- Administrator February 8, 2011
  
  Good stuff. I would love to see that doc–do you have a link to it?
  
  Darren
  (reply)
Ryan March 15, 2011

Seems to be a few docs here: http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/resources/
(reply)
- Administrator March 16, 2011
  
  Yep, they’re starting to make progress. Its still a disparate set of tools unfortunately, and not totally complete for many “enterprise” class requirements, especially around security controls. However, I suspect it will get there quickly, given current demand.
  (reply)