Is enterprise ready to embrace mobile? IT professional and company association CompTIA recently asked this question at the annual EMEA Member Conference, with a session discussing the growing (in both size and importance) role of mobile devices in enterprise.
After all, 90% of the 1 billion internet-enabled devices sold in Europe are mobile devices.
Starting off the session was GfK group director and market researcher Carl West, who says the traditional PC business has reached saturation point-- and mobile devices, together with the cloud, are reinvigorating the market, kicking off the replacement cycle and "giving us something to talk about."
West states "mobility and the mobile enterprise is not about hardware but is instead about implementation and best practice.”
Next to speak was Dimension Data CTO Neal Louw, who described mobile enterprise not as an evolution, but a revolution rapidly changing a landscape IT departments are struggling to keep up with.
His biggest concern is security-- a concern that is only getting bigger, as more employees bring their devices to their workplaces. Louw asked whether IT departments have a "bring your own" policy. If not, they are "already behind the curve."
The industry needs to address the growing complexity behind mobile enterprise, Louw continued.
RIM platform product marketing director Anthony Payne also talked about mobile enterprise, describing it as both a challenge and an opportunity for both vendors and IT departments. Payne points out we are living in a multi-platform world, and thus vendors and resellers need to tailor solutions to their customers-- the platform is not as important as "enabling" the user in question.
Moderator Bob Snyder, Channel Media Europe editor-in-chief, summed up the session by saying today the IT business is becoming the mobile business-- and mobile is driving the cloud by enabling computing anywhere, anytime, on any device, for better or worse.