iPad management in medium sized business

Our developer is putting the finishing touches on an internal web application. We'll be using it on the internal network and through a series of iPads. The iPads will connect through our IPSec VPN to the web application. We'll have approximately 15 iPads when fully rolled out.

I fooled around with the iPhone Configuration Utility and set up the wireless credentials and VPN configuration, as well as locked down the music and video section.

There's a couple points that I'm not really that happy with. For example, I don't really want the Address Book or Calendar visible particularly. I've moved them onto a second page of Apps.

I also don't like that the VPN disconnects every time the device is put to sleep. I'd prefer if the VPN autoconnected like the Wifi does, but that's not so much of an issue as the automatic disconnection. I wouldn't even mind if the iPad remembered the VPN password, because the user has to type the iPad password, VPN password and then the application username and password, which makes for a bit of a tedious experience.

I don't see any configuration options on the device or the iPhone Configuration Utility.

My question is does anyone have any experience in the 3rd party vendors that use the additional enterprise APIs and if so, do any of these annoyances I've listed above possible could be handled using such a 3rd party company / software?

Cisco IPSec deployments can take advantage of certificate-based authentication via industry-standard X.509 digital certificates. With certificate-based authentication, iPad supports VPN On Demand. VPN On Demand can establish a connection automatically when accessing predefined domains, which would provide you with seamless VPN connectivity.

For two-factor token-based authentication, iPad supports RSA SecurID as well as CRYPTOCard. Users enter a PIN and a token-generated, one-time password directly on iPad when establishing a VPN connection.

Now without jailbreaking, you can't remove/hide the iBooks or any default icon. Unless someone knows otherwise.