Sybase to support corporate email for iPhone

By Mickey Alam Khan

March 24, 2008

There goes the iPhone excuse

Mobile specialist Sybase iAnywhere will now support the iPhone within its Information Anywhere Suite, joining a parade of companies launching corporate applications geared for the Apple device.

The company’s Information Anywhere mobility platform will let IT organizations offer secure delivery of Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange enterprise email to iPhone users. It targets the enterprise and business user markets.

“The challenge is how do you bring iPhone into your enterprise infrastructure to support wireless email,” said Senthil Krishnapillai, Boise, ID-based director of product management for mobile collaboration products at Sybase iAnywhere.

“Through this release, we’re providing enterprises a secure way to extend their corporate email solutions to [the] iPhone, while at the same time helping the end user utilize the native email capability of the iPhone,” he said.

The iPhone support was born of customer demand to support the mobile device for business email. Sybase iAnywhere already supports corporate email for Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm devices.

Sybase iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase Inc., has touted several advantages to its iPhone support.

First is security.

The company said Information Anywhere offers iPhone support without the need to change a company’s messaging infrastructure.

In technical terms, the outbound connection model adds an extra layer of security without the need for firms to open inbound communication ports to the messaging infrastructure. Therefore, all mobile device connections end within the company’s demilitarized zone.

Per the company, Information Anywhere is designed to cut security risks with iPhone devices by restricting attachments, preventing user access and removing email data from a device.

The second feature is offline email access. Information Anywhere supports the native iPhone client to offer a faster user experience versus browser-based email support, Sybase iAnywhere claims.

Contact data access is the third benefit put forward. The platform will secure access to contact data on the iPhone, covering both corporate directory and personal contacts.

Other benefits sold include the platform’s multi-device support as well as enterprise email support, including support to Lotus Domino R6/7/8 and Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003/2007.

Comdirect AG, a Sybase iAnywhere client, has been selected as an iPhone beta participant.

“More than 50 percent of our support enquiries the week after the iPhone was released were basically asking when we can support the iPhone,” Mr. Krishnapillai said.

“Many of the iPhones are being bought by enterprise users, not just consumer users,” he said.

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