Understanding the mobile revolution: Trends to watch

• IDC predicts major strategic shifts in the three cloud layers: IaaS, PaaS and SaaS space
• Security and support for apps are biggest barriers for APAC enterprises in deploying mobility

THE year 2013 saw the strong entry of technologies such as cloud, big data, and mobility platforms into the marketplace, helping to create significant business opportunities and new ways of working for enterprises across the region.
 
Many businesses began the process of transformation, restructuring their IT to take full advantage of the latest cloud and mobility platforms to introduce more efficiency into their organisations.
 
Here are three key steps that Asean organisations can take to tap the opportunities the mobile revolution will bring in 2014.
 
Delivering ‘Anything-as-a-Service’
 
In 2014, Asia’s cloud adoption will start to reshape, with IDC predicting major strategic shifts in the cloud services space in each of the three major layers of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
 
As IT budgets tighten, there will be a need to drive down costs and simplify IT infrastructures. Businesses will increasingly look to adopt service-based offerings.
 
For instance, according to IDC, the growth of the desktop virtualisation market will significantly outstrip that of the IT market as a whole this year, and desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) – a subset of the desktop virtualisation market – will transcend even those expectations over the next four years and grow from US$13.8 million to US$123.3 million in 2017.
 
As such, DaaS – along with similar service based offerings – will be high on businesses’ list of priorities moving forward.
 
What businesses seek today are simply high-performing IT solutions that integrate seamlessly with the rest of the organisation’s IT infrastructure. So, simplified and consolidated offerings are the most appealing.
 
Implementing a cloud services delivery platform that enables enterprises and services providers to unify user management, provisioning and operational aspects of a cloud into a single cloud interface means organisations can deliver anything as a service.
 
Break down barriers to enterprise mobility adoption
 
Both Forrester and IDC estimate that the number of mobile enabled workers will hit 1.3 billion globally by 2015. Additionally, Forrester is predicting that smartphone penetration in Asia Pacific will see the largest compound growth worldwide, at 20% measured last year.
 
Therefore, it is not surprising that globally, 71% of companies accommodate and encourage BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) but it is also a shocking reality that 76% of companies estimate that 100 unidentified devices access their networks each day, according to the Citrix Mobility in Business report.
 
It is no wonder that companies consider overcoming challenges regarding mobile security and providing the necessary support for mobile applications as the biggest barriers to deploying mobility platforms in Asia Pacific.
 
The large range of mobile enterprise apps and devices puts mobile security in the limelight. Heterogeneous mobile devices, such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets have become a critical fundamental of today’s workplace, but according to the Mobility in Business report, 53% of the organisations in the region still lack formal mobility strategies.
 
In order to achieve a comprehensive and efficient mobility strategy, mobile security has to be high on the list.
 
IT departments can address mobile device security and compliance requirements with mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) products.
 
Providing secure access to mobile, remote desktop, SaaS and web apps from a unified corporate app store, and securing enterprise apps with just one single line of code is an effective option that provides the flexibility that mobile users want, while minimising the cost of ownership to the organisation.
 
Know the right IT roadmap
 
Although challenges remain, the business advantages that mobility presents – flexibility, remote worker support, competitive advantage, business continuity, and increased productivity – should outweigh the potential downside.
 
Implementing mobility solutions has become an imperative for any business today, with 63% of enterprises in the region believing that enabling mobile working delivers a competitive edge and 36% listing mobility as being of utmost importance to their business.
 
As simple as it sounds, understanding an organisation’s current and future business objectives is the very important first step that businesses need to take. To drive forward the most optimum mobility strategy, an organisation needs to think further and wider. Other than tackling current IT challenges, what are the future IT protocols, business plans, objectives and priorities you see?
 
The enterprise mobility strategy needs to be one that is tailored to the present and to the future – only then will Asean organisations be able to truly reap the full rewards that enterprise mobility can bring.
 
Mark Micallef is area vice president of Citrix Asean. Citrix enables mobile workstyles, empowering people to work and collaborate from anywhere, securely accessing apps and data on any of the latest devices, as easily as they would in their own office.
 
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