He also recommended companies collaborating on app development programmes in order to increase agility think about centralising control and developer access. In such situations, he said, companies should consider using a platform that supports collaboration but controls how access is shared across developer teams. Controlling access to sensitive code that is related to integrations, and locking down functionality where necessary, can mitigate the risk of security loopholes being introduced during the application development lifecycle.
Internet of things
Looking ahead to where this rapidly developing area will move over the coming 12 months, Harrison looked towards “app reputation services, such as AppThority and Lacoon” which, he said, are gaining popularity and maturity in the more advanced markets. He added too that mobile managed services — “that is the out-sourcing of end-user device support” — is also seeing considerable popularity and customer success in territories such as the United States.
Harrison also commented that “to date” Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable devices are “generally being managed by relatively niche solutions such as Jasper, however we believe this management will begin to appear in more mainstream EMM solutions.”
IoT was also on the mind of McGloin, who said, “in two or three years’ time we expect that there will be greater consolidation in the number of mobile solutions and products and, as IoT initiatives take off, these platforms will evolve to support this.” The Red Hat mobile platforms VP went on to say, “the focus will continue to shift to backend integration, increased agility in the app development lifecycle, analytics, platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and DevOps.”
McGloin added, “Currently, the number and fragmentation of tools, frameworks and platforms can cause some buyer hesitancy. Ecosystems of mobility solutions will form to address the complete landscape from MDM to development, integration, deployment, analytics and management. Rather than one single locked-in solution these will be open and standards-based to allow them to integrate and work together seamlessly.”
Skillset
For Datapac’s O’Connor, the greatest challenge for Irish businesses — and SMEs in particular — will be to have the necessary skillset in-house to implement MDM solutions and manage them effectively. While Gale said the arrival of the arrival of Windows 10 “and the enhancements that brings to the mobility offering from Windows” will drive real change in the pace people adopt mobility in their working practices.
However she said, “Its perceived simplicity could be misleading, as there still needs to be layers of security standing behind Windows 10 to adhere to certain levels of security standards and not all corporate applications in use sit nicely into it.”
Gale also said that the next two years will continue to see mobile working become the norm “and the main enhancements is that consolidation of the technologies into a single user interface that is seamless to use but also granular enough on the security front to meet the IT department’s needs.”
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