Apple's iOS 10 for IT Pros: Let's Get Down to Business

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Whether lamenting the iPhone 7’s lack of a headphone jack or celebrating the handset’s newfound water resistance, IT pros attending or watching Apple’s media event this week noticed that the company spilled the beans on a major release date.

No, not Sept. 16, when Apple will start shipping the iPhone 7. Rather, Tuesday, Sept. 13 marks the day when millions of iPhones, iPads and iPods will be upgraded to the latest version of the company’s mobile operating system, iOS 10.

Fortunately, for businesses that use popular enterprise mobility management platforms, the transition should be a fairly seamless one. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that its Intune mobile device management (MDM) platform was up to the task.

“Since the initial beta bits were first released, we have been busy working to ensure that all existing MDM and MAM scenarios are compatible with the latest version of iOS and we are pleased to announce that Microsoft Intune will support iOS 10,” stated Microsoft in a Sept. 7 announcement, the same day Apple announced iOS 10’s availability. “We expect all existing Intune features currently available for managing iOS devices will continue to work seamlessly as your users upgrade their devices and apps to iOS 10.”

AirWatch, meanwhile, has updated its apps (Agent, Container, Content Locker, etc.) to work with iOS 10. MobileIron, signaling its support for Apple’s latest mobile OS, recently released a whitepaper (registration required) detailing the impact iOS 10 is expected to have on the enterprise.

“Apple’s recent integration with Cisco is a great example of how Apple’s partnerships help enterprises change the way they do business by making mobile management faster, smarter, and easier for developers, IT admins, and end users,” remarked Muthu Somasundaram, director of Product and Solutions Marketing at MobileIron, in a blog post. “iOS has rapidly evolved into a full-featured, mature computing platform for the enterprise.”

iOS 10 will feature integrations with Cisco’s quality-of-service (QoS) technologies, enabling businesses to automatically prioritize critical business apps over leisure apps. The OS also supports Cisco Spark, the company’s unified communications platform, allowing users to make or take calls (voice or video) on their iPhones and iPads. Another new business-centric feature is VPN IKEv2 EAP-only (Extensive Authentication Protocol) support for ultra-secure remote access to corporate networks.

Apple has helpfully compiled a checklist for IT departments on how to get their organizations ready for iOS 10. Download it here (PDF).

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.