Apple, Unisys: Enterprise Services Deal?

Apple has reportedly struck a deal with Unisys to help expand its corporate and government footprint. Under the terms of the agreement, Unisys will provide maintenance and support for Apple products in use by those enterprises.

"Most of those organizations are still pretty heavily PC-based," Gene Zapfel, a managing partner at Unisys, told Bloomberg in an interview published Oct. 25. "Apple is going to crack the nut and clients are going to start buying a lot more."

Terms of the deal remain undisclosed, but Bloomberg indicated that Unisys will begin building more Apple apps for use by government agencies. Toughening the iPhone's security was another concern. "We've put a lot of heavyweight engineering into securing the device, which, frankly, no one else has figured out yet," Zapfel reportedly told the news service.

Unisys has a long history of providing IT services, hardware and software to government agencies and corporations. While mainframes and massive cloud-computing projects represent a substantial part of the enterprise IT equation, the growing use of consumer devices within businesses has become another point of concern for IT administrators. During a town hall discussion at last weekÂ's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2010 in Orlando, a number of CIOs and other tech pros took the microphone to describe how iPads, Android smartphones and similar devices had flooded their organizations in recent months--sparking security and compatibility concerns.

A June report prepared by research firm IDC for Unisyssuggests that around 50 percent of workplace devices are used in both personal and business contexts. In addition, a "disconnect" exists between employers and employees "regarding device/app usage and permissible activities."

For more, read the eWeek article Apple, Unisys Agree to Enterprise Services Deal: Report.