Can mobile smartphones like iPhone and BlackBerry be integrated into existing VPN solutions?
All major smartphone operating systems — Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Palm — can now be integrated with IPsec VPNs. Contemporary Symbian, Windows Mobile, and iPhone 3G devices have embedded IPsec clients that let them be connected to many enterprise IPsec VPN concentrators. Certain BlackBerry smartphone models (for example, the 7270) provide embedded IPsec support. And Palm smartphones can be integrated with IPsec VPNs by adding a third-party VPN client like AnthaVPN. It is important to realize, however, that smartphone IPsec clients may not dovetail with existing IPsec VPN policies or client management practices. For example, a smartphone IPsec client may not support the kind of authentication used by your standard VPN offering, and VPN policies may need to be copied onto smartphones manually instead of being pushed to a notebook using a domain login script or enrollment portal. Therefore, smartphones should be added to your list of supported VPN client platforms
