"IPhone support added for Sybase business customers"

Sybase Inc. customers who want to access corporate e-mail using their iPhones got their wish March 24, when the company began to support users of the Apple Inc. phone with an update of its Information Anywhere software suite.

Before the Sybase release, few technology departments at big companies supported the iPhone. To do so would have required them either to buy additional software or to expose their e-mail servers to potential security threats.

Now, in the course of a regular update for paid users of Information Anywhere, Sybase has created software that offers iPhone users secure access to IBM Corp.'s Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange e-mail systems, and to staff directories associated with those systems.

Sybase said it has faced enormous customer interest in using those features on iPhones. Shortly after the phone's June 29 release, 50 percent of Sybase's worldwide support requests asked when it would support the iPhone, said Senthil Krishnapillai, director of product management for mobile collaboration products in Sybase's iAnywhere division. "The IT departments are calling because their bosses are asking, when is this going to be supported?"