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These handheld computing/phone devices present some challenges, but the corporate benefits they offer are starting to outweigh any concerns CIOs and other IT professionals charged with managing them may have.
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By Bob Violino
The smartphone market is buzzing.
Research In Motion today announced the BlackBerry Storm. But that's just the latest news. In just the past few months, a number of companies have introduced new handheld phone/computing devices. Apple came out with an upgrade to its popular iPhone in July; Palm unveiled a slimmer version of its Treo device in August; T-Mobile created a stir when it showed the Google G1 last month; Nokia released its iPhone challenger, the 5800, a couple of days ago; and HP is expect to shortly introduce a newer version of its iPaq device.
Overall, global smartphone sales reached 32.2 million units in the second quarter of 2008, according to Gartner, a 15.7% increase over the same three-month period the year before—although sales have slowed from the blazing pace they set last year and Gartner sees a further cooling off as a result of the economic.
Still, new capabilities, such as increased security, are making these products more viable as tools for use throughout the enterprise.
The benefits of the devices are clear: better opportunities to communicate, collaborate and share information inside and outside the enterprise. But any organization looking to make a broad investment in handheld devices must be prepared to meet the requirements of managing the devices.
"[With] wireless networks maturing to near ubiquitous levels, applications getting pushed to more and more handhelds, and mobile device adoption through the roof, IT organizations are feeling the pressure of how to manage it all," says Benjamin Gray, an analyst for IT infrastructure and operations at research firm Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.
"There has never been a more critical time for you to get tighter control over your mobile devices," Gray says. "IT operations professionals are realizing that they need to treat handhelds the same as they do PCs. Why? Because of the small form factor, which begs getting left behind or stolen more frequently than laptops, and growing amounts of data, in the form of email and other mobile applications. But it involves more than just physical size and human nature."
Gray says there are a number of key trends that IT needs to stay ahead of by effectively managing their mobile assets. These include accommodating the new generation of employees who have greater expectations of mobility, the plethora of applications that are being pushed to handhelds, an influx of personal devices in the business that will challenge existing mobile policies, and the continual progression of mobile security threats.
The two most widely used tools to manage handhelds today are Research In Motion's BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and Microsoft's Active Directory, which manage their respective BlackBerry and Windows Mobile platforms extremely well, according to Gray.
Unfortunately, Gray says, these tools can't support much of anything else yet. Because of this, he says, many more mobile device management solutions are available. "Businesses that are looking for a comprehensive mobile device management suite or best-of-breed point product will find that they have dozens from which to choose," Gray says.
He says the most widely used mobile device management suites from "pure-play mobile vendors" include Nokia Corp.'s Intellisync Mobile Suite, Hewlett-Packard's Enterprise Mobility Suite, Good Technology's Mobile Messaging, Motorola's MOTOPRO Mobility Suite, Sybase iAnywhere's Afaria Mobile Device Management, and Wavelink's Avalanche Mobility Center.
Next: Smartphones Get Down To Business
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