Palm sets its eyes on the enterprise

Palm has stepped up its efforts to sell into the enterprise market, announcing three new partnerships aimed at extending the capability and security of its operating system (OS).

The partnerships, with SafeNet, Access and Insignia, will bring new features for the Palm OS 5 platform including Java and virtual private networking (VPN) support, as well as a new browser better suited to enterprise security needs.

In a keynote at the TechXNY trade show in New York, David Nagel, chief executive officer of PalmSource, set out the basis for the new partnerships.

"Our commitment to the enterprise is to provide smooth interoperation with existing systems and industry standards while continuing to innovate," he said. Nagel's PalmSource unit is responsible for the software and OS in all Palm handhelds.

Having built its business on retail sales to individuals, Palm is now hoping to give its products greater appeal to corporations.

The company has turned to Insignia's Mobile Foundation for a Java Virtual Machine that will let applications written in the Java language run on the Palm OS. "This means write once and deploy across platforms including Palm systems," said Nagel.

In a separate agreement, PalmSource will partner with SafeNet to develop a secure VPN client for Palm 5, based on SafeNet's SoftRemotePDA. The client software will enable VPN functionality and interoperability for Palm Powered products by securely tunnelling back to a SafeNet secure server, according to Palm.

The final partnership will see PalmSource working with Access Systems to provide core technology from its NetFront browser for use in the new proxyless Palm OS 5 web browser.