Microsoft products used to be as common as muck in the average office, and it was thought they generally had the enterprise market on lockdown.

Until now.

Cisco and Apple recently announced they were working together to make it easier for businesses to use Cisco products such as their messaging app Spark with Apple devices.

Enterprise Transformation

It’s still not actually clear what the two tech giants want to build together as the official statement is typically vague of Apple, stating that they wanted to give “businesses the tools to maximise the potential of iOS and help employees become even more productive using the devices they already love.”

Apple has been making a series of moves into the enterprise market to boost demand for the iPad. The Wall Street Journal reported in August that Apple was working with over 40 companies to help make its iPad a more business-friendly tool.

So we can be reassured that Apple’s in it for the long haul - the company seems determined to make their way inside of the enterprise network, which is good news for us Mac devotees. Better compatibility, better performance and better security.

Please Turn The Page!

Apple has to do something completely alien to the company here: prove its relevance. They need to prove they are capable of creating reliable office software that ensures productivity. I’m not seeing that with products like Pages or Numbers, although you can buy Microsoft Word to use on Apple products if you’re so inclined.

This partnership won’t be easy by any means. But I’m sure the engineers on both teams are clapping their hands with glee at the thought of what’s ahead for them.

Photo courtesy of 1080plus.com.