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It’s no surprise that Apple products have a cult following in the consumer segment. But will Apple ever establish a dominating presence within the workplace? Many analysts predict that in the very near future the tech-super giant will build a strong influence in the enterprise IT segment. They have been working behind the scenes to ink a couple of major partnerships with IT veterans like IBM and Cisco that will enable some fierce competition within a primarily Windows dominated industry. With the booming number of personal devices, especially iPhones, that are entering the workplace, it’s important for Apple to begin transforming its mobile capabilities and security to thrive in an enterprise IT ecosystem.
Here are 6 major end-user and application development considerations that IT organizations will have to confront when dealing with iOS, or any mobile device mass-adoption in the workplace:
Device Enrollment & Management. Apple and Google started their enterprise positioning after they realized that everyone was using their smartphones in the workplace. Executives, field workers, sales professionals all need to be able to access corporate email and calendars from their devices. Vendors have capitalized on this need by creating mobile device management (MDM) software so that your IT department can securely manage corporate data being synced to individual devices. This trend is slowly, but surely, extending to the adoption of Mac laptops in the workplace as well.
App Management. Employees are going to want to be able to use their smartphones and tablets for more than just email. The ability to utilize IT-approved apps that have access to sensitive business data will become more critical than it is already. Mobile Application Management (MAM) vendors provide enterprise app stores for distribution of corporate apps directly to employees. It goes without saying that this is far more secure alternative to putting corporate apps in public app stores.
Desktop Porting. A corporation’s entire operation can be dependent on several legacy desktop applications. Usually these applications are running on older infrastructures that your IT department won’t want to go near. This leaves IT with two options: port legacy applications to run on mobile or web technology (extremely time consuming and expensive), or utilize desktop visualization solutions that will allow for old legacy applications to run in a virtual environment, like an iPad, or other new-age device.
Network Optimization. It would seem that this is where the partnership with Cisco comes into play, considering specifics of the deal have not been announced. Corporate networks will need to optimized for the proprietary capabilities of iDevices.
Unified Communications. Another piece of the puzzle is the way IP-based devices will communicate within corporate networks. The Cisco partnership will probably play a huge role in this enablement as well.
App development. Developers within corporations are currently experiencing a critical need to create applications that not only streamline business processes, but also run on smartphones and tablets which run across multiple internal systems. This will lessen the dependence of using multiple legacy applications and desktop virtualization. Internal IT departments will not have the human resources necessary to meet the surging demand for application development. This is why partnering with a development team like Chicago Software Solutions will be critical to the sanity of your IT department.
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