100 years later, Unified Computing is here again …
February 14, 2011
100 years ago a small computing outfit named Computing Tabulation Recording Company operated in a small town near New York City. 13 years later the firm rebranded itself to International Business Machines and later named IBM – now with 400,000+ employees. Like many large enterprises, IBM not only develops the next generation of computing but its employees use powerful mobile computers of their very own – Smart Devices. Moore’s Law changed IBM’s computing paradigm and put powerful smart devices into 100’s of millions of business user’s hands. These modern computing smart devices now outpace traditional computer deployments in many large enterprises and deliver 1,000% or more application and data processing horsepower than computers produced only 10 years ago.
And, a funny thing happened on the road to this next generation of computing. Businesses are eager again to centrally and securely manage this wave of employee computing mobility, applications and data. IBM addressed this need for generations of computing with a secure and centralized computing approach. But, computing had far fewer IT and user variables vs. today’s mobile computers. The mounting cascade of user’s mobile application and data consumption through today’s generation of smart device, phone and tablet computers presents a very tangible cost and added complexity for IT. Many of our customers ask us “How do I manage this wide range of Android, iOS, Windows and BlackBerry smart devices?” And, taking a cue from what Enterprises want across nearly every industry, the solution has businesses delivering a centralized management security model that meets staffer’s needs for managing these computers.
IBM changed the computing game years ago through client/application integration with a centralized computing back end. Mobile device management is embracing the same model but with a twist. Departmental level applications and a growing variety of device OS, device model, operator, data plans and end user self governance make a new intelligent mobile management paradigm essential. Just as IBM led the market for computing innovation, customers today are learning that competitors trying to repurpose existing architectures or reposition adjacent products will rarely be successful e.g. repurposing wireless LAN controller management. Instead, a new architecture is required to leverage the smart device’s native advanced computing capabilities and provide IT management and visibility.
The multivendor computing ecosystem IBM built was impressive but perhaps too soon for its time. Today, smart device mobile computing is ready for unified management and already quickly moving down the highway IBM first built 100 years ago.
Get hired, bring smartphone
May 28, 2010
With so many more economical choices for purchasing smartphones, more global workers now choose to bring their own device to work. That’s a double edge sword. Productivity increases but use of corporate data on employee owned devices translates into increased risk. What if the employee leaves and goes to a competitor? What if the phone is broken or lost? What happens when that employee phone connects employees’ friends, social networks, their media (illicit or virus laden), and games disguising network attacks. Telecomm is not prepared and IT is overloaded to deal with threats.
With nearly 50% of future phone purchasing moving towards smartphones, employers need a scalable solution to both manage and secure valuable corporate assets. AT&T executives also detailed this week that 40% of iPhones are now going into the enterprise. IT and Telecom are converging in their need for intelligent mobile device management that secures these assets while providing both a user and business view into costly bills. MIT Technology Review writes about Service providers harnessing mobile usage patterns this month as well.
By the end of 2011, a recent study from Nielsen states Smartphone deployments will be so rapid that there will be “more smartphones in the U.S. market than feature phones.” Smartphones show higher application usage than feature phones even at the basic built-in application level. During Nielsen’s Mobile Insights survey respondents noted in the last 30 days that users are taking full advantage of device application capabilities. Apple iPhone OS (32%) and RIM OS (37%) control more than two-thirds of today’s market while Windows Mobile, Android and Symbian account for the remainder. All OS and device suppliers are increasingly aware of the need for diverse business applications – apps that need to be securely managed at scale. The smartphone Tsunami is cresting and businesses are now realizing these mobile applications represent a significant increase in corporate data usage on devices never before managed. The next step for IT is proactive user, application and device management.
Class of 2015: Mobile U
May 30, 2009
A friend’s kids just went to college. Their university charges them $10 a month for their dorm room phone, as part of their on-campus living expenses. They, of course, never even use the dorm phone (they are 100% mobile) and their dad doesn’t even know the number. Seems like a waste of money for the school and the student.
Mobility in higher-ed is an open issue right now. A big chunk of campus wireline infrastructure for living quarters is arguably unneeded and under-appreciated. What telecommunications services (if any) should a college provide? Should they give every student a mobile phone? But many kids will already have one and have no desire to switch. It makes sense to give students a way to access data more cheaply, more easily, and at greater speeds from their phone while on campus. It also seems reasonable to complement access with new campus-related mobile apps, whether for coursework, research, extra-curriculars, or safety.
But how does the college fund this? Is it just part of the basic package a 21st century college has to provide to remain competitive? Or is it a value-add service that can provide new revenue for the institution?
Very practical concern. But I worry that asking only the “funding” question locks us into a mindset of mobile phones as just a dorm phone replacement, instead of as a potential catalyst for changing the basic educational experience itself.
Maybe that sounds a bit too grandiose, but some folks are thinking about campus mobility very broadly. Here is a snippet of what Duke University was doing last year to encourage its faculty to integrate mobility: http://cit.duke.edu/tools/mobile/index.html They say: “… mobile devices offer an opportunity to further educational goals by leveraging and building upon the functions of technologies already adopted by and considered indispensable to a majority of students.”
That last part is dead-on. Here is a technology kids love and find absolutely immersive. Use it for all it’s worth. Over the next 5-10 years, I truly believe we are going to see mobile phones become as intrinsic a part of the college educational experience as they are today of the social experience. They will be a conduit of learning and, let’s face it, much more fun than my memories of watching freshman physics tutorials on closed-circuit campus TV.
