Enterprise Mobility Trends: Focus on applications, data and connectivity

Foreign media recently published an article to analyze the status of enterprise mobility, talk about its challenges, focus changes, application development and so on. The article points out that enterprise mobility is becoming more and more popular and its application scope is gradually enlarged. With the advent of mobile offices, work has finally turned from a fixed-place office to a place where people have the flexibility to choose office space and equipment.

The following are the main contents of the article:

Enterprise Mobility (Enterprise adroit) is one of the goals that people have been pursuing for a long time, and there have been some results, such as wireless mail clients and specialized vertical applications. But for ordinary users, mail and Web browsing determine the quality of their mobile experience. Companies have been reluctant to move more applications for a variety of reasons: User experience, cost, security issues, and so on. But as the enterprise deploys mobile device management scenarios (MDM) and Enterprise mobility Management (EMM), incorporating them as part of a mobile architecture, enterprise mobility is becoming increasingly popular, moving out of the initial stages of most organizations.

The EMM is rapidly becoming popular. According to Gartner, Mobile is one of the top three priorities for the 2014 corporate CIO (Chief information officer) spending. The rise of MDM and Emm in recent years – consolidation, mergers and IPOs – underscores the rapid sophistication of the industry and the new ways in which organizations now think about mobility.

As with web browsers in the early days of public networks, MDM has become a tool for larger, more integrated solutions from defining categories of solutions, as well as the foundation of an enterprise mobility platform. To fully activate mobile productivity, organizations now need to look for more comprehensive products to flexibly leverage applications and content management while ensuring the security of messaging and productivity applications. At the strategic level, they now view mobility as a mobile office that supports access to applications, desktops, data, and services anywhere on any device or network-a trend that is important for solution providers and customers.

The corporate mobility revolution is geared toward changing the attitude of the IT department towards mobile devices and applications. When enterprise mobility is just beginning to emerge, IT departments tend to view BYOD (self-contained device Office) trends as problems. As consumers ' smartphones and tablets enter the office, employees are beginning to ask for mobile access to corporate assets and mail, and it is understandable that it is concerned about security and manageability issues. The initial enterprise mobility strategy is relatively conservative, allowing access to a handful of carefully managed applications in very limited usage cases. Over time, the IT department must respond effectively to the increasingly demanding access requests and requests of employees to prevent employees from turning to an uncontrollable, less secure working environment.

Corporate embrace MDM reflects a return to familiar patterns: IT departments manage mobile devices in ways that manage any other terminal, such as laptops, desktops, and so on. This really solves a lot of demand, but the major pain points still exist. These challenges and the solutions designed to address them reflect the status of the Emm.

Device Ownership and privacy issues

MDM can effectively address many of the enterprise's mobile use cases-especially around enterprise devices-but device ownership and privacy issues limit its scope. "One-size-Fits-all" management of the entire device will allow users to feel that IT departments are simultaneously monitoring their personal activities and office usage. This will make users reluctant to use their mobile devices in BYOD projects, weakening its value.

Contractors, temporary workers, partners, and other Third-party users also pose problems for MDM. Formal employees may be willing to include personal equipment in MDM, and contractors are unlikely to be willing or able to do so. The IT department needs to set different ways for the users to access the messages, share files, and specific applications that they need, while not having full control over the device.

Focus shift from device management to application, data and connectivity

The diversity of enterprise mobile use cases has led IT departments to adopt a more granular approach to management. The EMM tool enables IT departments to manage the movement and the software-as-service (SaaS) applications and data, and the transmission of information between devices and corporate networks, rather than "one-size-fits-all" management. This allows IT departments to selectively implement policy provisions based on specific use cases and user, device ownership, vertical industry requirements, data recoverability requirements, and other variables. MDM has its role in this pattern, but only as a member of a complete set of tools for control and security management.

The mainstream of enterprise mobility

The application scope of enterprise mobility has been extended from limited basic use cases such as mobile mail to complete mobile Office products and various professional use cases. A growing number of executives and sales people carry tablets instead of laptops while on business, and doctors use tablets to view electronic medical records (EMR) and clinical applications at bedside. Retail staff walk around the store, giving customers who need them instant checks to provide inventory information, and the ability to checkout immediately so that customers do not have to go to the checkout counter. Design and manufacturing professionals can even access high-end 3D graphics applications on mobile devices to collaborate on complex CAD drawings.

Now, by supporting enterprise mobility, companies can both measure productivity and save costs. In this context, the key to success is not in which platform or device to support, but in identifying mobile use cases and analyzing data, and creating more professional services that allow users to get the data they need when needed. The focus is on the application itself and the embedded data.

Application is the key

This extension of enterprise mobility is facilitated by implementing policies and technology that enables a wide variety of applications to run on any device. Currently, mobile applications account for only about 8% of enterprise-class applications, and IT departments need to be able to use Windows, Web, and SaaS applications on mobile devices as well. To make the most of your productivity wherever you go, users need to be able to access any type of application at the mobile office in an equally easy way-even without having to consider the application type problem. "Come with Me" data features are also important to ensure that people access the same data anytime, anywhere.

User Experience First

As in other it areas, in the enterprise mobility, user recognition is a key factor in determining technology success. While providing enterprise-class capabilities, technology providers also need to provide a familiar consumer experience. Enterprise mail clients are not able to ask people to adapt to a completely different experience from the iOS or Android messages they are accustomed to, and it also has to provide major enterprise features, such as adding attachments to meeting invitations and adding meeting information directly from calendar items.

Although only a few years ago, enterprise mobility is now ready to give full play to its potential. By ensuring that applications, desktops, data, and services are accessed securely and instantaneously from any network on any device (not just smartphones and tablets), organizations enable mobile office workers to freely and flexibly choose their office options.

The security implementation of the mobile office relies on the EMM, but it also requires more extensive functionality in enterprise file synchronization and sharing, flexible application delivery, networking, virtual window programs, desktop delivery, and more. With the advent of mobile offices, work has finally turned from a fixed-place office to a place where people have the flexibility to choose office space and equipment.

Translator: Lebang

(Responsible editor: Lvguang)