Other enterprise players
For a full list of Palm partners that have enterprise solutions available, please go to the Palm Computing Web site at http://www.palm.com/enterprise/solutions/. I'm taking space here to mention just two of Palm's partners that you should definitely keep your eye on.

Riverbed Technologies
If you can't wait until next year to get your hands on Palm HotSync Server-type technology, you need look no further than Riverbed Technologies. Riverbed Technologies has a solution available today called ScoutSync that is very similar to the Palm HotSync Server product. In fact, Palm is licensing technology from Riverbed for their Palm HotSync Server. You can download a 30-day free trial version of Riverbed's ScoutSync from their Web site.

Puma Technologies
One of the more titillating pieces of information I heard at the Palm Solutions Event is that Puma Technologies is working on a product, code-named Vulcan, that will use Bluetooth technology to help handheld devices communicate when they come in proximity (three meters or so) of each other. The projected release for this product is early 2000. Puma also has other existing enterprise solutions available today, including its Intellisync Anywhere family of products. This is definitely a company you need to research if handheld enterprise solutions are an area of interest to you.

Get ready for change
To be honest, Palm's recent enterprise announcements excite me and scare me all at the same time. It's exciting because I can see how the Palm device will truly become an essential tool that all employees of a corporation use, rather than just a select few. And it scares me because I know that my device is going to be a little less private once I'm connecting it into the corporate network. But mostly I'm very excited. That's a good thing, because this change is probably inevitable. I can almost see it gathering on the horizon like big storm clouds as I sit here and write this today. The one thing that is certain is that we're all going to get saturated with change.

Dan Velasco is a Contributing Editor for DominoPower Magazine as well as an avid user of his Palm V. Dan is a Lotus Notes/Domino Developer for the Worldwide Sales & Marketing Department at Adecco in Redwood City, CA. He is also an R4 and R5 CLP Principal Application Developer and a R4 Principal System Administrator. You can reach him via e-mail at dan.velasco@adecco.com or on the Web at http://dan.velasco.com.