????1997年，戴爾公司CEO邁克爾?戴爾曾經說過一番很著名的話。他說如果他是蘋果（Apple）公司的CEO，他就會趁早關門，把錢還給股東。不料最終史蒂夫?喬布斯竟然走上神壇。喬布斯有充分的理由去羞臊邁克爾?戴爾的面皮。盡管當年蘋果推出iMac筆記本后大獲成功，但當時大多數的“知識型工作者”主要還是依賴傳統的WinTel平臺（也就是Windows+英特爾），只有少數營銷人員、設計師或開發人員才選用外觀精美的蘋果產品。當時普通人也大都鐘情傳統、主流的Windows電腦。在當時看來，蘋果貌似會成為一家專門面向時尚數碼產品消費者和創意精英的小眾廠商。

????我們剛把蘋果歸到小眾那一撥里，蘋果就改變了世界——僅憑一只手機。蘋果iPhone革命性地將強大的應用程序、全網頁瀏覽和各種各樣的多媒體程序雜糅在一起，為消費者和職業人士創造出了一種全新的移動體驗。iPhone大獲成功之后，蘋果趁勢接二連三地推出新產品，從升級版的iMac，到后來的Macbook Air。iPhone推出后僅僅36個月，蘋果的iPad再次改變了世界。快進到今天，蘋果已經坐上了電腦世界的頭把交椅，控制了大量的研發者、設備和消費者，并且在很大程度上控制了行業的總體方向。

????不過蘋果帶來的最大影響，可能未必出自蘋果的本意。

????在最近20年的大部分時間里，微軟和少數其他巨型企業幾乎壟斷了財富500強企業和其他企業的IT服務。不過如果你四處打聽打聽，你就會發現，很多人或IT管理人員并不喜歡這種霸權局面。員工們很快就意識到，他們的企業IT和他們的個人電腦應用之間存在著顯著的差異。因此他們開始把自己的設備和應用程序帶到公司，這種現象催生了一個全新的科技領域。實際上蘋果公司并沒有認真瞄準這個領域。因為要為企業服務，就要在復雜性、規模、安全性和細節上下足功夫，更不用說還得和企業使用的其他所有主要平臺進行合作。這樣一來，蘋果將無暇顧及市場。不過蘋果雖然沒有直接參與進去，但憑借最近的一系列成功，加之蘋果在這一過程中提高了我們對科技的接受標準，因此它還是對科技產生了深遠的影響。

????所以雖說蘋果并非主動領導企業信息技術變革，但它的產品還是對企業信息技術變革起到了催化作用。例如去年有88%的財富100強企業都在iPhone上測試或部署應用程序。iPhone和iPad在企業中的應用越來越普及，帶動了蘋果的龍頭產品的銷量，Mac電腦的全球銷量年增長率達到了近28%。正如蘋果的首席運營官蒂姆?庫克所指出的那樣：“iPad顯然對Mac電腦的銷量造成了連鎖反應。”

????這一點很重要。原因何在？因為一旦企業配備了全套的蘋果裝備——iPhone, iPad和Mac電腦，（根據蘋果最近一個季度的表現來看，企業還在繼續大量購置蘋果設備），或者甚至是安卓（Android）系統的設備。總之一旦發生了這種情況，一些現有的應用程序（比如IBM的通訊工具或微軟的協作工具）在生產過程中的重要性就會日益降低。今天，職業人士所使用的工具正在經歷一次徹底的轉變，我們正迎來企業的蘋果化時代，也就是所謂的iEnterprise時代。

????例如寶潔公司（Procter & Gamble）2008年找到在線文件共享與管理網站Box.net，希望它能提供一套解決方案，使寶潔的員工能夠進行遠程溝通和遠程內容協作。當時沒有任何一家公司能夠滿足這一要求。不過到了2011年，寶潔已經將Box的云內容管理功能全面部署到了18，000名員工中，這在很大程度上要歸功于近一兩年興起的各種新平臺和新設備。不光是寶潔一家，從潘朵拉（Pandora）到都樂（Dole），大大小小的行業和企業都借助新平臺和新設備實現了遠程協作。這也解釋了為什么多達73%的財富500強企業都采用了蘋果的產品。我們顯然不是這場企業需求變革的唯一受益者，也不是這長變革的唯一推動者。

????所謂的iEnterprise并不是說企業只部署由蘋果公司設計的產品，而是指徹底改變企業的技術支持、技術應用和消費方式；指的是利用我們個人生活中的科技，來影響和改變我們對職場生活的期望值。iEnterprise未必是將個人生活和職場生活這兩個世界的數碼產品融合在一起，而是保持生活理想和職業理想的一致。

????盡管史蒂夫?喬布斯在介紹新產品的時候總愛說“惹人喜歡”或“令人驚嘆”這種詞兒，但這種形容詞顯然無法拿來形容現在的企業軟件。原因有以下幾點。首先企業軟件的成品往往給人一種缺乏熱情的感覺，甚至有點冷漠死板。其次，許多應用和服務給人的感覺有些虛張聲勢，令人意興闌珊。事實上我們工作中用得最多、花最多的錢買回來的軟件和硬件往往也是最復雜、最笨拙、最讓人焦頭爛額的貨色。

????不過iEnterprise的目的，是要由廠商來打造能夠讓用戶感到興奮和驚奇的科技，正如蘋果公司的做法。它的重點在于協作，在于開放的生態環境，在于公平的競爭市場，在于以創新求勝——這極大地顛覆了企業IT的現狀。現在的情況是，廠商的封鎖和壟斷使他們在很長的時間內都不用進行大規模的產品提升，因為顧客只能在他們這里買東西（比如微軟）。

????這一點在企業應用的移動性的發展上表現得尤為明顯。過去人們認為移動性就是能夠隨時隨地快捷地收發電子郵件，或是進行電話會議。在上世紀90年代和20世紀初，黑莓（Blackberry）是這方面的領軍者。不過iPhone和iPad在移動性方面走得更遠，而且現在幾十款熱門的安卓設備基至已經打入了一些大公司。我們在惠普（HP）和它的WebOS平臺上也見到了移動性的進一步發展。企業現在可以通過Salesforce、Roambi、Basecamp、Yammer或Box等服務來接入重要數據、項目或內容。

????iEnterprise還意味著那些用途廣泛、功能強大的平臺通過整合，可以實現互聯和拓展。例如Salesforce是一款云交付的客戶關系管理應用，可以用來管理公司的銷售部門，也可以與公司在Box上的業務信息進行聯接，或者與Workday上的人力資源信息進行聯接。而企業管理解決方案Netsuite可以與Yammer上的社交軟件進行連接。云計算平臺GoodData可以讓用戶在客服托管平臺GetSatisfaction上的客服數據結果變得更形象化。客戶關系管理平臺Asistly還可以將公司的顧客支持率插入谷歌企業應用套件（Google Apps），使企業看到從各個社交網站匯總的顧客支持率。服務的混和和搭配本來在我們生活中很常見，但現在它已經擴展到了企業界，反過來它又極大地推動了越來越多開放性解決方案的發展，它們正在改變企業界面貌的。

????當然，這并不意味著Windows就日薄西山了。光是人的惰性就足以使微軟在未來10年之內仍然不會失掉企業操作系統和軟件提供商的地位。只要微軟做出一點點創新，微軟的企業IT生意還會做得更久。不過蘋果的功勞在于它迫使我們重新思考科技在我們生活中的角色，從而造成了深遠的影響。它正在改變整個行業，而且也會對企業界造成長遠的影響。

????科技會給我們的個人生活、以至職場生活帶來什么樣的改變，從而使我們的工作生活更富于成效，使我們的聯系更加緊密？我們對這一點的期望越來越高，也越來越明確。那么，歡迎來到iEnterprise時代！

????——作者亞倫?列維是Box.net的CEO兼共同創始人。

????譯者：樸成奎

????In 1997, Michael Dell famously declared that if he were CEO of Apple (AAPL), he would close shop and return the money to shareholders. Steve Jobs has had plenty of reasons to gloat since then, but even just a decade ago, Apple was a footnote in the story of modern computing. Despite the company's comeback success with the iMac, the vast majority of 'knowledge workers' still relied on their staid WinTel (Windows + Intel (INTC)) platform, with the occasional marketer, designer or developer opting for Apple's sleeker products. Naturally, Windows PCs were also the familiar, mainstream choice for our personal lives. And so it seemed that Apple would be relegated to devices for the hip digital consumer and creative elite.

????But right when we thought we had Apple's place in the market pegged, they changed the world... with a phone. The iPhone's revolutionary combination of powerful apps, full web browsing, and all the media you could consume created an entirely new mobile experience for consumers and workers alike. Apple fed its newfound momentum with a deluge of subsequent products, ranging from updated iMacs to the Macbook Air. And with the iPad, Apple changed the world yet again only 36 months later. Fast forward to today, and Apple sits in the computer world's top position of power, controlling developers, devices, consumers, and much of the industry's overall direction.

????Maybe its biggest impact of all, however, was one that Apple didn't necessarily intend.

????For the better part of twenty years, Microsoft (MSFT) and a handful of other enterprise behemoths pretty much dominated the vertical stack of solutions that are core to the Fortune 500 and beyond. But if you ask around, not too many individuals or IT leaders are happy about this hegemony. Workers are quickly recognizing the stark contrast between the computing that occurs in their personal lives and the business status quo. In turn, they're bringing their own devices and apps to work, driving the emergence of an all-new technology landscape. This landscape isn't being targeted by Apple in any real way; the complexity, scale, security, and nuances of serving enterprises – not to mention the inherent need to work with all the major (non-Apple) platforms enterprises use – tend to keep Apple from building for this market. But even without making any direct enterprise play, Apple has had a profound influence on technology with its latest string of successes and by raising our standards along the way.

????So while Apple isn't intentionally leading an enterprise technology revolution, its products are nonetheless catalyzing one. For instance, 88% of the Fortune 100 are testing or deploying applications on the iPhone last year. The downstream effect of more iPhones and iPads in the enterprise is more sales of Apple's flagship products, with Mac worldwide sales growing by nearly over 28% year over year – as Tim Cook, Apple's COO, puts it, "iPad clearly seems to be creating a halo effect for the Mac."

????Why does this matter? Well, once an enterprise adopts iPhones, iPads, and Macs en masse (as they continue to, judging by Apple's most recent quarter), or even Android devices for that matter, many of the existing applications – be it a communication tool from IBM (IBM), or collaboration from Microsoft – serve less productive purposes given the new way people are working. The toolset today's workers interact with on an ongoing basis is experiencing a wholesale transition – a transition that's introducing us to the iEnterprise.

????Take, for instance, Procter & Gamble (PG), who came to Box.net in 2008 looking for a solution that could help employees connect to and collaborate on their content remotely, when no existing vendor would suffice. Fast-forward to 2011, and they're now deploying Box cloud content management to 18,000 individuals, in large part due to the proliferation of new platforms and devices that have emerged in just the past couple of years. The same story is true for businesses of all sizes and industries, ranging from Pandora (P) to Dole. It's why we've seen adoption in 73% of the Fortune 500. And we're clearly not the only ones benefiting from and driving this dramatic evolution of needs and demands in the enterprise.

????The iEnterprise isn't, as the moniker suggests, about enterprises that just implement products designed in Cupertino. It's about a fundamental change in how our enterprise technology is supported, adopted, and consumed. It's about the technology in our personal lives influencing and changing expectations in our professional lives. The iEnterprise isn't necessarily the convergence of the tools we use in these two worlds, but rather the consistency of ideals.

????While Steve Jobs introduces new products with words like "delightful" and "amazing," this vocabulary is nonexistent within the enterprise software set. There are a number of reasons for this. There's often a lack of passion, and even a bit of apathy, that shows in the final product. Applications and services feel bloated and uninspiring. The apps and hardware that we spend most of our waking hours with - and the most money on - tend to be the most complex, clunky, and unnerving.

????But like Apple, the iEnterprise is about vendors building technology that excites and surprises users. It's about solutions that work together, and about open ecosystems. It's about marketplaces that compete to win, and innovate to compete – a major break from the status quo, where vendor lock-in enables long cycles of limited product enhancements, simply because the customer has nowhere else to go (Redmond, ahem).

????We're especially seeing it show up in the changing mobility of our enterprise offerings. Mobility used to be defined by quick and easy access to email or a conference call, led by Blackberry in the '90s and early '00s. The iPhone and iPad took this much further, and dozens of popular Android devices are now even making their way into large corporations. We're further seeing it with HP (HPQ) and its WebOS platform. Businesses can enable access to critical data, projects, or content through services like Salesforce and Roambi, Basecamp and Yammer, or Box, respectively.

????The iEnterprise is also about broadly useful, powerful platforms that connect and become enhanced through integration: cloud-delivered applications like Salesforce (CRM) to run your sales organization will connect to your business information on Box or HR information on Workday; Netsuite will plug into your social software from Yammer; GoodData will help visualize your client community results from GetSatisfaction; and Assistly plugs your customer support flow into Google Apps, which wraps all of this up in a robust marketplace for businesses. The mixing and matching of services that's common in our personal lives is now extending to the enterprise, and in turn driving vastly more open solutions that are changing the enterprise landscape.

????No, the Windows franchise isn't going anywhere. Inertia alone gives Microsoft another decade as the de facto enterprise operating system and software provider. With minimal innovation this could be extended even longer, but Apple has already made a profound impact by pushing us to rethink technology's role in our lives. It's changing the whole industry, and will have a lasting impact on our businesses.

????We have higher and more pronounced expectations for how technology can transform our personal lives – and now our business lives, making us more productive and connected than ever before. Welcome to the iEnterprise.

????--Aaron Levie is the CEO and co-founder of Box.net.