A few days ago, my boss gave me an iPad 16G WiFi for testing in our company environment. I’m working with an iPhone 3GS for almost a year now and I would not like to miss it any longer.
What do we need the iPad in our organization for? Here are a few from our list of requirements
- Lotus Notes Traveler
- Connect to our network via VPN and CheckPoint firewall
- Intranet
- Connect to SAP via Business Object Explorer app or browser
- Synchronize documents ( M$-Office, PDF )
- Edit documents
- Other aplications via browser
- Access files on our servers
As we already use Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.2.1 on iPhone and Nokia devices, I didn’t expect any issues with installation and configuration on the iPad.
The iPad has only WiFi and so I connected to our LNT server internally. The server can be accessed from outside using SSL via a reverse proxy. The connection from the reverse proxy to the internal LNT server uses http only thru the checkpoint firewall.
After downloading the profile and the usuable steps to install it, I was able to sync my mails, calendar and contacts. Next I installed a second profile accessing my server at home ( HTTPS and DSL ). No problem at all at this time.
Later that day I tried to install the access to my company mail accout from outside the network via the reverse proxy. As I said, this works perfectly on the iPhone and Nokia devices, but I am not able to install the profile on the iPad. All I get is an “Error DomainÚErrorDomain Code=0 “Operation could not be completed.” (DAErrorDomain error 0.)” . Thanks to Dennis van Remortel for some tipps on twitter.
There are a few hints on this error and I will sure need to do some more investigation. ( Reverse Proxy logs, Domino server settings etc. ).
Next was to connect the iPad using VPN. This was painless. No app needed. Simply throw in the servername or IP of the corporate firewall, username and password and a shared secret. PN, I am now able to connect to LNT and sync my company mail.
Intranet and other browser based ( XPages- ) applications work perfectly and the size of the display makes it easy to work with them.
We also tried RDP connection to some Windows machines and so we did with SSH to Linux boxes. Teamviewer and VNC work as well.
Now for the documents. I searched the AppStore and found “Documents To Go” which seems to fit perfect for our needs. Pls. forgive me, I’m, a newbee in the Apple world ( except a few free apps on the iPhone ) and perhaps there are better solutions. But I guess that you will write your suggestions in the comments.
At first sight, “Documents To Go” looked like the perfect application. It can open all fiele formats that we use and you are able to modify documents and spreadsheets.
Now for the sync part. “Documents To Go Desktop” lets you sync the content of folders on your computers with the iPad or iPhone. I installed the client on my laptop. After the start it complains that I do not have “Bonjour” installed on my laptop. No surprise is that because I do not have iTunes installed and Bonjour is a part of iTunes. This is the first big minus point for the iPad in the enterprise. We do not allow iTunes on computers in the enterprise.
But this is my private Laptop. so I installed iTunes and started “Documents To Go Desktop” again. I had connected the iPad by USB. To my surprise the device was not detected by “Documents To Go Desktop”.
There is a hint on the screen that sync only works via WiFi but not via USB. This is the next mega-big minus that makes this app absolutely useless for our needs. Not only that you have to connect the iPad via WiFi to the network; you have to connect your local computer to the network via WiFi as well. No problem with a laptop, but try this with a desktop PC …
By the way, the iPad does not load its battery when connected to USB. Tried several ports on the laptop, dockingstation and a desktop PC. Also tried different cables. The pad connects to iTunes in all tests.
Anyone an idea to connect to CIFS shares on Novell Netware using the FileBrowser app? Can connect to Windooze 2003 server and Windooze 7 workstation, but Novell Netware.
So far for my first steps with the iPad. Feel free to comment and give hints and tipps. Much appreciated.
Hi Ulrich
I’m still surpised it doesn’t work for you, but I’ll try it on the conpany ipad later this week.
Distributing content is the main problem we’ve currently got in our company too.
We want to centrally manage the documents they cary with them, but so far we’ve found nothing that suits our needs
For the iPad charging issue, try installing the ASUS USB Driver software, ASUS Ai Charger. It has worked on various computers for me.
Can be found via Google, or at http://event.asus.com/mb/2010/AI_Charger
Enjoy the iPad.
@William: Thanks for this tipp. Works like a charme.
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