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Mobile: Enterprise IT Will Need to Be More Open To Mobile
In a world of proliferating mobile devices and employee and staff members wanting to be able to use their own devices to access business applications brings along with it IT security risks and integration challenges, but it also carries the potential of enabling significant increases in information-worker productivity. The Pew Research Center says that two-thirds of young adults and 45 percent of all US adults now have a smartphone.
Gartner notes that many companies have switched to using Apple as their primary mobile provider and it is expected that many more companies will make the switch to Apple in the next 18 months. But while iPhone and iPad are popular, so is Google’s Android platform. And other platforms, like Windows 8, are still emerging and threaten to upset the current lead of Apple and Android. In 2017, Gartner predicts that 90 percent of enterprises will be using two or more mobile operating systems.
Ian Finley, an analyst at Gartner, predicts that 2014 will be the ‘tipping point’ where the number of mobile devices accessing business data exceeds the number of desktop PCs. And 38 percent of those mobile devices will be owned by the employees.
Phil Redman, research vice president at Gartner, said that “The convenience and productivity gains that mobile devices bring are too tempting for most companies and their employees. Securing corporate data on mobile devices is a big challenge, but one that companies must embrace.”
In order for businesses to be able to support a wide range of mobile devices, Gartner is predicting that over the next five years Mobile Device Management (MDM) systems will become increasingly popular. The Defense Information System Agency similarly predicts a similar need and is actively trying to come up with a solution for the US Military.
In order for IT to maintain control, Gartner recommends that mobile devices should be identified and categorized into three groups for how they will support them. Devices provided by the company should be considered standard and trusted. A middle category of tolerated devices, and a third category of those devices that will not be supported.
Redman said that “Organizations will find it hard to achieve an efficient mobile-support system if all platforms are not managed the same way under enterprise requirements. Like PCs, mobile devices are forms of client access devices, and the policies for them should be similar in strength but optimized for mobile usage, to those governing PCs.”
