Gearing up for mobility

With the advent of numerous mobile devices into global business, Middle East is proactively adapting to mobility. It has geared up to stay ahead of the league by having the highest regional mobile data traffic growth rate (36-fold) over the next four years, reports say.

Employee mobility has become one of the key areas that enterprises focus on to maximize their productivity. In turn, use of mobile apps — both in-house and commercial — within the enterprise is soaring, making mobile application management a critical capability in IT departments. The eventuality of the number of mobile Internet – connected devices exceeding the number of people on earth is around the corner and IT departments are going to get very busy! When such a scenario is cascaded into Enterprises going mobile, there needs to be an impeccable MDM policy in place. With large amount of vulnerable data at stake, are Enterprises doing enough to monitor it? – Considering the level of data breaches, and critical data being compromised in large numbers – probably not!

With such a paradigm shift, what are the implications enterprises will have on their day-to-day activities?

1)      Larger number of devices to monitor

2)      Providing security, tackling external threats

3)      Ensuring internal data passes through high voltage security management system

4)      Data loss from missing mobiles

5)      Tackling Unauthorized access

6)      Barring Unencrypted communication

“Gone are the days when enterprises focused on securing their network with a firewall and basic access restrictions. Now, they have to look beyond their physical network to ensure that there are no possible vulnerabilities, be it a corporate mobile app, corporate mobile devices or a BYOD setup. The enterprise is solely responsible to monitor what data goes out of their network, who accesses them, are they from a trusted device, are they encrypted communication, etc.” says Mathivanan Venkatachalam, Director of Product Management – ManageEngine

Coinciding with this is the elevated curve as far as the IT spending in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is concerned. It is expected to reach a staggering $1.154 trillion in 2013, according to Gartner. A clear 1.4% increase from 2012′s projected spending of $1.138 trillion is in the order.

Interestingly, the mobile device market is positioned in the optimistic spot owing to the grand entrance of tablets and smartphones that are outpacing purchases of traditional PCs. It is noted that in EMEA alone, spending on mobile devices was predicted to be $136 billion in 2012, landing at $188 billion in 2016. According to Gartner, by 2016, two-thirds of the workforce are also predicted to have a smartphone or tablet device, forcing software companies to rewrite software and a rise in this market, which will grow 3.1 percent in 2013, nearly reaching the $100 billion mark in 2016.

Though there is speculation about how BYOD is going to greet 2013 with one side expecting a decline and the other predicting a good mix of corporate devices as well as BYOD, it is best for Enterprises to keep up-to-date with the changing trends and be prepared for either of the outcome. Enterprises must now make choicest of decisions in coping with this enormous trend shift as well as in choosing cost effective IT services to combat the ever increasing IT spending.

Enterprises now have a choice: a) Move away from traditional and expensive business models offered by Big 4 that lack innovation and has complex integrations. b) Stop depending on independent point products that has no integration and sustainability or c) shift to a comprehensive IT Enterprise software that offers integrated value, cost effective price points and single-point solution. With IT spending soaring, Enterprises better be vigilant as to whether such spending is utilized in the highest optimal way.

To offer an all-inclusive solution to address the mobility trend, IT Enterprise Software Company ManageEngine has rolled out  Desktop Central, which, with the help of its MDM capabilities, enables enterprises perform mobile device management to configure and secure their mobile devices from a central place. It simplifies the work of administrators by making them perform both desktop management and mobile device management using a single console.

Managing mobile devices is one thing, managing applications is entirely another. With a sound Mobile Device Management that enables configuring policies, getting asset information, and securing a mobile device comes the ability to manage the Apps that are installed on the devices. Desktop Central’s MDM also provides the Mobile Application Management (MAM) capability that helps administrators perform the following management functions: App Management, App Distribution, VPP Integration and Reports. This is accompanied by a rigid Security Management and Audit & Report facilities.

ManageEngine Desktop Central is integrated desktop and mobile device management software that provides software deployment, patch management, service pack installation, asset management, remote control, configurations, system tools, user logon reports and Active Directory reports.