There is  much speculation (see here, here, and here) about what the arrival of the iPad will mean to the enterprise computing environment. Of course, much of this is opinion and much of it is conflicting. Rather than add my voice to this chorus, I thought I would pass along what real enterprises are discussing, planning and doing today.

Within the past week we received the first set of inquiries about the iPad from our customers. Since the iPad is not yet shipping, these customers are taking advantage of the remaining time to determine the existing infrastructure, frameworks, and services that can be offered or supported; and to develop a coherent set of policies for use of the iPad in their corporate environment. Their goal is to anticipate the iPad’s arrival (whether it is through the front door or the back door), and have a clear set of guidelines and processes in place when it does.

The initial areas of concern and focus are: email, web browsing, wireless access, VPN access, data protection; and of course, help desk. Customers with SSL VPN solutions deployed are particularly interested in extending this service to their iPad users. There are a few things these customers have in common: they already have a significant community of Mac users in their corporate environment, and in my estimation these customers are on the more advanced end of the spectrum of  IT organizations that we work with (another way of saying early adopters).

They believe the initial demand for iPad support will come from existing Mac users who are also ultra-road warriors, followed by existing Mac users that are mainly email/web-centric (and view the iPad as a less costly replacement), followed finally by users that bought the iPad for personal use and want to use it in the corporate environment.

If your company is preparing for the iPad’s arrival in your enterprise it would be great to hear from you.

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