Johannesburg, 04 Nov 2015
Mobile technology isn't the future - it's right now.
As a consultant I meet too many companies that still consider mobility to be just one part of an IT roadmap or strategy, rather than a new way of living and working that impacts every facet of human interaction with technology, says Christopher Dawson, Mobile Practice Lead at DVT.
For too long, mobility has been seen as a threat to the enterprise, a potentially beneficial advantage that brings with it more risk than reward in the business context. This may have been true in the early days of mobility, where connecting external devices to corporate networks was akin to espionage.
The evolution of the smartphone brought about instant, anywhere connectivity to the Internet, and with it, a liberation of data from the desktop to the mobile device. As vendors scrambled to capitalise on the trend, early enterprise mobility successes were limited to closed systems like BlackBerry, which addressed potential security threats through impregnable and restrictive controls.
However, enterprise mobility would not be contained this way for long. The ubiquity of mobile devices in people's everyday lives led to the inevitable clamour for continuity in the workplace. BYOD (bring your own device) policies became increasingly popular, with the proviso that certain apps, Web sites and functionality be limited for business use.
Today, with a settled number of operating platforms and the maturity of device-agnostic enterprise mobility management (EMM) tools, making way for mobility has become one of the business world's hottest technology trends.
There is nothing fundamentally new when it comes to mobile computing - after all, wireless communication networks are only an extension of the Internet, which has been around for decades. What we're seeing is a natural evolution towards boundary-free access to information that we use to work, live and play, using devices that encompass every aspect of our lives.
In the workplace, making way for mobility means knowledge workers can accomplish more, more of the time. The Internet of things connects us through almost every digital device, from traditional application servers (now increasingly referred to as the cloud) to the refrigerator in the kitchen. Moreover, more recently, through wearable technology like smart watches and health bracelets. Why travel to a fixed location to access our data when we can simply turn on a laptop, tablet or smartphone to accomplish the same thing?
Making way for mobility means opening up new channels for global access. Key actions and decisions should be able to be made during flights, from remote locations, or even while walking the dog. Technology is no longer the inhibiting factor in our ability to access and analyse secure information.
The only thing stopping us is our inertia, our resistance to change, our aversion to risk. These are as much a part of our human makeup as the need to free ourselves from constraints and explore new frontiers. I know which road I'd take if I wanted my business to make sense today, and tomorrow.
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