Taylor went on to note that Extended Systems' product is also an add-in to IT with such things as a backup and restore and automatic application restore. If you're on the road and somehow you delete your sales application by mistake, the next time you synchronize your handheld, it all comes back up.

Security is naturally a big issue for any enterprise as well. I asked Taylor how Extended Systems is dealing with security on a competitive stance.

"With us, you have to be an authenticated user," she explained. "So, you do have to use authentication, password protected. Then we also offer the Certicom authentication, which is a form of encryption." Certicom (at http://www.certicom.com) provides them with a 128 bit encryption.

Conclusion
It's easy to see why Palm CEO Carl Yankowski recently said, "The mutual attraction Palm and Extended Systems felt in our merger plans remains as strong as ever." The technologies these two companies provide seem to dovetail perfectly. Working together as independent partners, they can offer a mobile infrastructure platform that maximizes the benefits of mobile device deployment. And in the end, it's you, the customer, who will truly benefit.

Theodore Durst is an Associate Technical Editor for ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing, a freelance writer, analyst, and product marketing wonk. He can be reached at theo_durst@zatz.com.