Business Continuity for the iPad and iPhone

With the releases of the iPad and iPhone 4 businesses are being put in an interesting position when it comes to Business Continuity.  For the past few years the iPhone has been the up and coming player for Enterprise email.  While it has not surpassed the Blackberry, it’s adoption rate is very high.  Now the iPad enters the fight and adds a new dynamic to your BC planning.

Exchange is the Linchpin 

  For most “I” users, access to email is the single most important feature for their device of choice.  Because most organizations use Exchange, supporting “I” devices is relatively easy with Active Sync.  But as more users become dependant on remote email access, providing BC for Exchange becomes even more critical.  With users in the office it is easy to see the effect of an Exchange outage.  But mobile users are unseen and unknown, accessing their inboxes 24 x 7 x 365.  Installing Windows updates at 3:00am on a Sunday could easily result in calls to the helpdesk wondering when Exchange will be back online.  Having published maintenance windows and SLA’s is critical to ensure everyone in your company has a clear understanding of what to expect with regards to your servers.

Intranet and Application Access

  With the iPad, accessing your companies intranet and applications is much easier than ever before and as such uptime for these services becomes a new or updated headache.  Providing proven and consistent availability for your servers is crucial to keeping the business productive and users happy. 

24 x 7 x 365!

While remote access is not a new technology, both the iPad and the iPhone 4 make it much simpler for a whole new groups of users to access a variety of services. Gone are the days of the required VPN.  Users can easily access files and data from anywhere in the world at any time.  Providing Business Continuity has just become much more complex.  Time to update your BC plan!