10 iPhone Apps Only An IT Pro Could Love
The Apple iTunes store is chock-full of apps that are equally useful to IT and business users. Here, we're focusing on 10 iPhone apps that only IT professionals could love. See what we've uncovered.
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As aficionados of all things technology related, most IT professionals jumped on the smartphone bandwagon very early. In recent years, the iPhone has become one of the more popular smartphones in IT shops.
Yet, until recently, there was a dearth of iPhone apps specifically geared toward IT professionals. The few tools available tended to be half-baked or lacking in critical functionality.
Because of this, IT pros learned quickly not to rely too heavily on the iPhone for any real-world tasks. Instead, we used desktop or laptop computers as workhorse devices for getting things done. Any iPhone app taken up was used either for novelty purposes or as a last resort when there was no access to a PC.
Times have changed. Now we're seeing high-quality apps coming from developers who understand IT -- and from technology vendors themselves. In my experience, some mobile apps designed for IT users perform better than their desktop or Web-based alternatives when it comes to ease-of-use. Some IT professionals can perform nearly all their duties from an iPhones. That's pretty incredible when you think about it.
Unlike other InformationWeek reports, where we've featured iPhone apps that could be equally useful to IT and business users alike, here we're focusing on 10 iPhone apps that only an IT professional would use. In most cases, we've focused on applications that are universal tools, ones that can be put to use in any enterprise IT shop.
In other cases, the app may be proprietary to a specific technology vendor. We encourage you to ask your vendor of choice if a similar iOS app is available.
Once you've reviewed our picks, let us know which of these you use. Tell us about any other IT-focused iPhone apps you rely on, and why you like them. See you in the comments section below.
If you're tired of using multiple iOS apps to manage your server infrastructure while on the go, take a look at IT Manager, an all-in-one server administration tool. IT Manager allows for connectivity into servers via methods like RDP, VNC, and Apple Remote Desktop (ARD). The tool allows you to manage and monitor not only in-house servers, but also underlying hypervisor software and remote cloud services. At a cost of $25/month, it's a fairly expensive iOS app. But considering the cost of the infrastructure you support, it's a drop in the bucket. IT Manager also integrates with the Apple Watch, providing server status information at a glance of your wrist.
For those of you who manage a Cisco network, the Cisco Technical Support App can come in handy. Simply login with your Cisco ID and you can open, edit, and close Cisco support cases. Additionally, you have quick access to all existing contract information, a bug search tool, and support documents. One new feature I like is the "Check Device Coverage" tool, which lets you either manually enter a serial number or use the built-in bar code scanner to verify coverage for a particular piece of hardware. (Full disclosure: In my role as president/lead network engineer of West Gate Networks, I serve as a certified Cisco network architect and consultant.)
If you support any WiFi infrastructure, you know how challenging it can be to troubleshoot wireless problems that are here one second, and gone the next. Sometimes you hear about a wireless problem happening, yet, by the time you can return to you desk to retrieve your laptop and begin troubleshooting, the problem has already disappeared. Ruckus Wireless customers can use the Ruckus SpeedFlex app, which enables you to troubleshoot a Ruckus WiFi network from your iPhone. The SpeedFlex tool looks and feels like a standard Internet bandwidth tester -- the difference being that you use it to test connectivity between your iPhone and the local wireless access point to which it is connected.
One challenge for any IT pro is trying to figure out the best way to remember all of the various usernames and passwords for each server, application, and device he or she manages. If you use KeePassX as your go-to password manager on your desktop, be sure to try out the MiniKeePass app for the iPhone. The two apps sync using a shared database that's stored in a cloud storage service, such as Dropbox.
For generic network troubleshooting tasks, look no further than the Network Analyzer App. With this tool, you can run pings and traceroutes, scan TCP/UDP ports, perform DNS and WHOIS lookups, run speed tests, and scan WiFi networks to detect wireless APs. For any service desk or network support admin, this is a must-have app.
Those of us who administrate IT infrastructure via command line will want to consider using the Serverauditor - SSH tool. Once you get accustomed to the user interface, you find that this tool has nearly everything you need to remotely monitor servers, applications, and network components via secure shell.
IT professionals live and breathe in a digital world. When we receive paper documents, we don't quite know what to do with them. To fix this, try the Tiny Scanner app. With this app, it's simple to use the iPhone camera to snap a photo of a document to create a high-quality PDF document. You're welcome.
This being 2015, chances are your IT department hosts at least a portion of its infrastructure in the cloud. If AWS is a cloud service provider, you'll want to check out their AWS Console app. While the app doesn't allow you to perform every function you can on a desktop PC, it does offer many key features for viewing and managing your cloud environment while on the go.
If you are an IT professional on the customer support side of the house, you likely deal with ticketing systems on a regular basis. If you use Zendesk as your ticketing platform, you absolutely must have the Zendesk app to go with it. The Zendesk app is perfect for Tier-1 IT support staff who are constantly on the move fixing problems and rarely have time to get back to their desks.
Seeing YouTube on a list of apps for IT professionals might lead you to believe I've made a mistake. But YouTube is becoming a massive repository of IT "how-to" information. If you don't know how to do something, a Google search is your first step. A close second is to see if someone has already accomplished what you want to do, and posted a video of how they did it, on YouTube.
We hope you enjoyed reviewing our picks of the 10 iPhone apps only an IT pro would use. If you have an app that you regularly use, and would like to share your experiences with the InformationWeek community, please tell us about it in the comments section below.
We hope you enjoyed reviewing our picks of the 10 iPhone apps only an IT pro would use. If you have an app that you regularly use, and would like to share your experiences with the InformationWeek community, please tell us about it in the comments section below.
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