Consumerisation of mobile

I always try and get to a Nick Jones session at a Gartner, he's usually got something interesting to say about future technologies, especially in the mobile space.

This session was mainly about consumerisation in the mobile area.

Have to learn to live with it and love it, it's all we've got. A lot of consumer technology is better than enterprise technology, often cheaper, more features and quicker to develop. Often more innovative.
Some conflicts including security and compliance, cost and risk. Balancing act, has to be win win, there have to be compromises.

Lots of different sorts of mobile work and mobile workers. Some is under the radar, personal iPad used for a mixture of work and personal, through formal BYO programs to traditional company owned device. Consumerisation destroys one size fits all model of support and management. So, you need to segment your workforce, and look at appropriate model for different roles and types.

BYOD will continue to grow. IT can no longer dictate hardware and platform decisions. Staff can use up to 6 devices and share data via the cloud. App stores redefine expectations of app behaviour and appearance. BYOA (apps) is also going to grow. Key mobile vendors have become service and cloud vendors eg Apple, Google, Amazon.

Employee ownership of smart devices is continuing to increase as prices fall and smart phones replace feature phones. Might be a backlash to BYOD from employees who see it as an additional cost to them.

Some future mobile technologies:
3D device display
HTML5
Ubiquitous screens
Context
Biometrics
epaper
Gestural interfaces

Watch out for them!

Internet of things
Apps will connect mobile devices to everything. Toys, toaster, lighting, tyres, you name it. There will be new interactions and solutions. Clothes with stress sensors to help you with Pilates already there. Leads to new challenges in supporting end user devices! Most of management of these things will be through mobile devices. Lots of opportunities, and risks.

Social factors are important. Consumerisation is not for everyone. Technically unsophisticated staff ( I like this phrase!) tend not to be good at self support. Low income workers can't afford this technology.

Consumerisation makes you think differently about vendors.
Windows very corporate
Google very consumer orientated
Apple, mainly customer, not much enterprise focus.
Need to understand where vendor is coming from.

Consumerisation not just about devices:
Personal informatics. Applications designed to support personal goals. Email sentiment analysis. Personal brand management. Apps to remove emotion bias. CBT apps.
Apps store will compete with corporate It over things like expense management. Buy your favourite interface to SAP or Oracle.
Peripherals and cloud. On body monitoring, text to speech headsets.
These things could cause HR issues which will need managing.

Architecture is important, we need to:
Standardise on data formats not applications and tools
Licence people not devices
Become endpoint independent
Authenticate people and apps, not devices
Embrace open standards and strong ecosystems
Allow staff maximum freedom of choice
Protect data, you won't know where it's stored
Encourage bottom up innovation
Don't try and control things you don't own
Assume the user is in control of all decisions involving devices and apps
Be alert for new risks eg location snooping
Move data away from devices to the cloud

Software licensing and distribution not easy in a consumerised mobile world. Bulk licensing often not possible. App store purchases hard to audit. BYO licences can't be recovered when employees leave.

How to make mobile consumerisation safer. MDM (Mobile device management), not the only answer. Consider all of the following and choose most appropriate:
Trust the platform, eg Blackberry. But no one wants to use them...
Trust the configuration, use MDM tools
Trust the cloud, rather than the device
Trust the app. Containerisation of data and trusted app store
Trust the file system, encryption or synchronisation tools, but you may still have to trust the apps
Trust nothing, use thin client. But usability is an issue.
Trust the user? No?

Support is an issue, can we support absolutely anything?
Need to make apps and devices more supportable. Adopt supportable architecture.
Manage risk, address legal, HR and insurance issues. Address issues such as backup
Enable self help. Provide community and peer support. Social networking, wikis etc to share information. Educate users. Suggest and signpost external support resources.

Conclusions:
Segment users, define management regimes
Consumerisation must be win win
Work with users, not against them
Explore new technological solutions
Revisit architecture and tools
Stay tactical and flexible, look for good solutions today not correct solutions tomorrow
Look on it as an opportunity, not a problem








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