GigaOM » Enterprise Mobility

How to manage mobile expenses in a BYOD world

aaarcilla — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 06:55:50 +0000

For bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies (and mobile devices in general), enterprises have focused on resolving issues related to the security and control of corporate resources loaded onto personal devices. What is not talked about often is expense management — a crucial component for implementing successful policies.

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Podcast: How enterprises can build successful BYOD programs

Jenn Marston — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:52:15 +0000

Implementing a formal BYOD strategy is key for many companies today. But finding one that can be managed in a secure and organized fashion is a challenge for many. In the latest GigaOM Research podcast, curator Cormac Foster and analyst Aileen Arcilla discuss challenges and steps for successful, cost-effective BYOD programs in enterprises.

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SHOW NOTES
Host: David Linthicum
Speakers: Cormac Foster and Aileen Arcilla

What is BYOD?
What is the value of BYOD when leveraged within enterprises?
What are some of the technologies that enterprises can leverage to manage a BYOD workforce?
What should enterprise do to get ahead of the use of BYOD technologies?
What about security and privacy?

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Planning a BYOD strategy on the move

Cormac Foster — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:55:47 +0000

How does a business go about implementing a new BYOD strategy when the wheels are already turning? However you slice it, hitting a moving target is more work than starting from square one, but you can maximize return by locking down three key steps.

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WAN design for the cloud age

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 07:55:03 +0000

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The promise of SDNs in the enterprise

doyleresearch — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 17:13:54 +0000

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Survey: the next wave of enterprise mobility

Michael Wolf — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:14:28 +0000

A tidal wave of mobile devices and services has entered enterprise computing in the past five years, first with smartphones and now with tablets. This change is in large part driven by key business communications technologies (such as Microsoft Exchange Server) as well what many consider critical business services (such as Salesforce.com and Dropbox). Already it is altering some industries, such as retail, health care and the industrial sector, in a significant way. This report looks at a survey conducted by GigaOM Pro of 304 IT decision makers in enterprise businesses. The survey covered such topics as cloud computing, big data and enterprise mobility. This snapshot report examines responses to questions about enterprise mobile computing.

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A near-term outlook for big data

Krish — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 06:55:20 +0000

Big data now touches everything from enterprises and hospitals to smart-meter startups and connected devices in the home. Hadoop, meanwhile, is fast becoming the leading tool to analyze that data, and there is the ever-lingering question of privacy and how we, the technology industry, are responsible for teaching ethical ways to collect and regulate our data. This report, composed of eight different sections each written by a GigaOM Pro analyst, offers insights on what to consider when it comes to big data decisions for your business.

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Ezeep offers new portal to printing in the cloud

David Meyer — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:00:31 +0000

As the world goes mobile, being tied to your printer is starting to make less and less sense — and cloud printing is becoming the sensible alternative. Google Cloud Print is one good system, but it requires Chrome and is really a replacement for the user’s personal print network, and that doesn’t make sense for everybody.

Enter Ezeep, a Berlin startup that’s been in stealth mode. The company provides a technically similar service to Google Cloud Print – both basically abstract the printer drivers off to the cloud – but its system is aimed at organizations like hotels that may want to charge for printing. For them, Ezeep is promising to take a lot of hassle off their hands.

“We’re working on changing printing. We want to change the whole industry and the user experience,” Ezeep co-founder Sascha Kellert tells GigaOM. “People are frustrated with printing, and it costs companies a lot of money. We have an infrastructure that moves most of the things that are currently done locally into the cloud.”

The managed service’s first clients are indeed hotels, but Kellert won’t say which ones.

The system means guests no longer have to take their documents to the hotel staff by USB stick or email for printing. Instead, using Ezeep’s subscription-based system, the hotel provides the guest with an online portal that includes a per-page billing mechanism. The guest uploads their document and it gets printed through the hotel’s connected printer, for collection later.

Ezeep also has apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry OS. These are mainly intended to find nearby printers and send them documents stored on the mobile device, but it is also theoretically possible to use them as an intercontinental fax replacement.

There’s even a neat feature for sensitive documents that lets the guest set up a print job, then manually trigger on their phone when they’re standing in front of the printer.

The company has “several partnerships in the pipeline which are quite big”, and the first full version of the product will come out “soon”, says Kellert. Details of pricing are vague right now, but there is money behind the venture. Ezeep quietly closed a funding round last October that brought in €500,000 ($662,000) from the likes of HTGF, which also funded 6wunderkinder, and serial entrepreneur Thomas Madsen-Mygdal.

It’s not as if there aren’t cloud printing companies already targeting this space, though.

Setting aside brand-specific manufacturer initiatives like HP’s, PrinterOn provides an interesting point of comparison, since it offers mobile and desktop cloud printing to customers including, yes, hotels.

However, on the desktop side – where people tend to store their documents – PrinterOn’s service involves emailing the document to a special address or installing a driver. And while PrinterOn’s service is secure, that is only because it involves sending a release code back to the user which they then have to approve.

Ezeep’s system, on the other hand, just involves uploading the document to the cloud. “Again, keeping it simple,” Kellert says.

In the long term, Ezeep wants to seek partnerships with hardware manufacturers so the company can provide physical kit as part of its managed service. “But we’re not seeing that much demand right now as most people have printers already,” Kellert points out.

And in the meantime, attendees of trade shows such as next week’s LAUNCH in San Francisco will get to see Ezeep-sponsored conference printers that offer a demonstration of the service. Even mobile-centric businesspeople still need a little dead tree sometimes, and Ezeep hopes that its system fits the bill.

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Snapshot: The many moving parts of enterprise mobility

Kevin C. Tofel — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 14:42:16 +0000

Going mobile in an enterprise sounds sexy, but there’s far more to it than just handing out smartphones and tablets to employees. Symphony Teleca, created by the merger of two companies this month, offers up this infographic to highlight the necessary moving parts of a complete enterprise mobility strategy.

Efforts range far beyond actual devices, encompassing in-house mobile-specific app stores and platforms, device management, telecom decisions, analytics and more. That’s a bit more than I recall from my I.T. days when carrying an alpha-numeric pager I wore was considered the honored badge of mobility!

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IBM doubles down on mobile

Ryan Kim — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:16:40 +0000

IBM, which has quietly supported many telecom players, is now stepping up its mobile profile, buying up Israeli mobile app provider Worklight and releasing a new device management tool for enterprise customers. The moves help IBM capitalize on the push toward mobile by companies as they manage an exploding number of devices and apps.

IBM’s purchase of Worklight will allow it to offer customers a simple way to create apps that can run on all manner of devices on multiple platforms such as iOS, Android and BlackBerry. Worklight, which has previously partnered with IBM, also offers an integrated development environment along with middleware, management and analytics. By using Worklight, IT staffs can also create secure connections between mobile devices and their enterprise IT systems.

The acquisition is set to close in the first quarter. The terms of the deal were not announced. Worklight will be moved into IBM’s Software Group.

The pick-up helps enhance IBM’s mobile portfolio and makes it more appealing to companies looking to leverage tablets and smartphones. In a recent IBM survey of 3,000 CIOs, three out of four respondents said mobility solutions was one of their top spending priorities.

In that same vein, IBM also unveiled a new software system called IBM Endpoint Manager for Mobile Devices. The software will help IT teams manage their exploding fleet of mobile devices, which are growing thanks to bring-your-own-device policies. IDC said that nearly half of all mobile devices in the workplace came from employees. With Endpoint Manager, companies will be able to remotely set policies, wipe data from devices, look for security holes and configure passcodes, encryption and virtual private network settings. This will work on iOS, Android, Symbian and Windows devices as well as computers and servers.

The move to beef up IBM’s mobile credentials makes sense in a market that is moving increasingly in that direction. SAP bought Sybase in 2010 for $5.8 billion in part for Sybase’s mobile middleware and device management platform. Research in Motion recently unveiled a new device management and security tool called BlackBerry Mobile Fusion that allows companies to secure iOS and Android devices through BlackBerry Enterprise Servers. And Good Technology has been building up its business managing and securing enterprise devices and this past fall also introduced a new platform called Good Dynamics that allow companies, ISVs and developers to create and manage secure mobile apps using Good’s infrastructure.

“Our clients are under increased pressure to meet the growing demands of a workforce and customer base that now treat mobility as mission critical to their business,” said Marie Wieck, general manager, IBM application and infrastructure middleware.

Just as consumers have gone mobile and app crazy, it’s influencing companies, which are having to adapt. There’s still a good opportunity for competitors like IBM to help make sense of it all for companies and provide them with secure tools as they mobilize.

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