Factor in 802.11 wireless LANs and the Bluetooth initiative, and you're looking at a potential horde of new client devices invading your network. If you're wondering why these little guys are suddenly becoming so relevant, just talk to your development folks. The PalmOS and Windows CE did a lot of work last year delivering solid platforms for developers. Remote diagnostics seems, well, remote in that not a lot can break on these things. And if something does, just send the user a new one as most data will be stored on a server anyhow.
Asset management is the real key here.
And while some PDA vendors are integrating such abilities into their products, this is still a very gray area for now. Some special packages exist from vendors like Callisto, Puma or Sterling Software, but I couldn't find anything that really addresses palm devices as full-fledged network clients right now. Managing PDAs may not be on your plate right now, but if your developers are continuously giggling while hunched over something that's too big to be a pager, but too small to be a notebook, start worrying. Oliver Rist is contributing technical editor at InternetWeek and technical director at Grand Central Network Labs.