 "Future Of Enterprise Mobility On Cloud Nine")
Mobile workers are on the rise, limited only by the storage and computing power that their mobile devices provide. The question, “How do you deliver computing resources to devices for mobile workforces?” has a powerful answer in emerging cloud-based services. Think of this: Mobile + Cloud + Enterprise App Stores = The Future of IT. With a surge in the adoption of all three, it is easy to see why 2012 will be the ‘Year of the SuperMobile Enterprise Worker’.
Integrating location, presence and other value-additions to cloud-based services is likely to create never-before ways of enhancing productivity and efficiency for the enterprise. Gartner, in its forecast for the Top 10 Strategic technologies for 2012, has said that cloud computing would be a disruptive force in enterprise services. When deployed for mobile workforces and mobile environments, the combined power of cloud and mobile networks could be transformational.
In its recent Mobile Cloud Computing Industry Outlook Report, VisionGain, an independent business information provider for the telecoms, estimated that mobile cloud computing could be a US$ 45 billion market by 2016, growing at a CAGR of 55.18 percent from 2011. The growth is expected to come from enterprise mobile cloud applications as 3G networks expand coverage and as deployment of high-speed 3GPP LTE (3rd Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution) grows.
Amongst the quick wins for enterprises using mobile cloud services:
No need for a datacentre – all the data is in the cloud and accessible on a mobile, anywhere, anytime
Data is automatically backed up – increasing reliability and availability
Applications are delivered to the mobile device over the Internet - cutting down on the help desk and your IT budget; mobile apps can be self installed, uninstalled and are intuitive to use
An enterprise can pool its apps across geographies – reducing costs, bringing greater control through virtual provisioning
Cost savings in a hosted environment – which includes elasticity and scalability of services at short notice; agility of the enterprise is enhanced.
Many mobile apps can be developed to propagate over disparate operating systems – enabling flexibility in choice of hardware.
With apps, smaller components can be built to be later mashed up with other services – ensuring that an enterprise does not have to “trash” anything, reducing costs.
For enterprises, cloud based mobile services offer CAPEX as well as OPEX reduction opportunities. On the other side of the business equation, there is a critical driver for handset manufacturers and network providers to build secure, dependable and scalable enterprise cloud services: it lets them go beyond putting chips into a metal container with their branding or simply providing a dumb “pipeline” for data. By and large, cloud services can be rapidly customised and personalised for individual users as they help discover customer identity, location and usage. For the mobile eco system, these are factors that drive service innovation linked to loyalty and increase Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU).
Mobile cloud services are bound to grow exponentially. In the short term, they can be a crucial differentiator as they help leverage real-time visibility to business, offer convenient access to information leading to increased usage of business apps leading to better decision-making and providing completely new ways to do business. Over the long term, they will ensure lowered cost of services.
The imperative of adopting mobile cloud services to address productivity and cost gains is obvious. Yet, few enterprises are opting to develop their own mobile applications, opting to use products and services being offered by their providers. The primary reason is that enterprise application development is an expensive proposition and enterprises lack the resources. However, the first step to cloud-based mobile service adoption for growth and agility is to create an enterprise-wide mobile strategy that asks the question: How do I begin to free my workforce from its cubicle and put it back in the market place without adding to CAPEX and OPEX?
The author is Director, Enterprise Sales, India, Research In Motion.