With the highly-anticipated iPhone SDK just days away, rumors are swirling about just what Apple's intentions are for enterprise users.

IT shops, however, need not wait.

"Whatever the impending iPhone SDK accomplishes out of the gate, the fact is that most IT organizations can bring the iPhone into their operations easily and with acceptable risk," Galen Guman explains in Making the iPhone work for business.

Sure, analysts such as Forrester Research caution against doing so on grounds that the device has deficits, particularly security-wise, that ought to concern IT. Then again, a no iPhone policy might be unrealistic and could spur users to perform hacks on their own to get at corporate e-mail and calendars, making security all the more troublesome.

"IT will have to decide whether security shortfalls justify banning the iPhone from the enterprise," Guman advises. "A good way to judge that is to make an honest assessment: Are you as tough on USB thumb drives, smartphones, and work-at-home users' PCs as you want to be on the iPhone?"

Posted by Tom Sullivan on March 3, 2008 07:56 AM