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joltsik
Contributing Writer

Beyond Basic Mobile Management

Analysis
Aug 08, 20122 mins
AndroidCisco SystemsData and Information Security

Large organizations should be prepared for increasing application development and deployment

In a 2010, ESG Research asked 174 enterprise IT professionals whether their organizations were developing or planned to develop their own mobile applications.  The findings were as follows:

  • 28% said they had already developed mobile applications
  • 34% planned to develop mobile applications
  • 26% had no plans but were interested in doing so
  • 11% had no plans or interest in developing mobile applications
  • 1% said “don’t know”

With regard to mobile computing, 2 years ago is ancient history (dare I say we are moving at Internet speed?).  Based on my frequent conversations with IT professionals, nearly every organization I speak with is engaged in mobile application development today. 

Some companies already have their own mobile application “store” with hundreds of homegrown applications for users.  Typically these are lightweight fixed-function applications — some are web-based (and will likely be built using HTML 5 in the future) but many are native applications.  Additionally, most of these applications were designed for mobile devices, taking advantage of GPS, graphics, cameras, etc. 

Why am I focused on mobile application development? Because I see a disconnect in many enterprise mobile strategies. We are still focused on BYOD and IT consumerization so many organization’s think in terms of basic device management and security — onboarding, network access control, data encryption, remote wiping, etc. As mobile application development explodes, we need more than just device management, we need mobile computing management — software distribution, version control, digital rights management, entitlements management, etc. 

Leading mobile management vendors like Good, MobileIron, and Zenprise get this which is why they are doing well in the market.  I’m not sure that the other 350 or so vendors in this space are there yet. 

joltsik
Contributing Writer

Jon Oltsik is a distinguished analyst, fellow, and the founder of the ESG’s cybersecurity service. With over 35 years of technology industry experience, Jon is widely recognized as an expert in all aspects of cybersecurity and is often called upon to help customers understand a CISO's perspective and strategies. Jon focuses on areas such as cyber-risk management, security operations, and all things related to CISOs.

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