My colleague Rich Bentley piqued my interest recently when he pointed to a blog post from Om Malik on the state of the mobile internet that revealed quite a few interesting findings. Based on Akamai’s quarterly internet survey report, Om wrote that smartphones – which made up more than half of all phone purchases in Q1 2011 – caused mobile data usage to explode, increasing by 130 percent during the first quarter of 2011 versus the first quarter of 2010. 

I’m continually intrigued by the mobile device explosion we find ourselves in. Last year IDC even predicted the worldwide mobile worker population would reach 1.2 billion by 2013. As smartphones and other mobile devices like tablets grow in popularity in enterprises and virtual workplaces, a myriad of business and IT challenges are beginning to arise, including:

• Standardized security for all devices. Not too long ago, the corporate network belonged to the company and wasn’t beholden to employees. Oh, how times have changed. Now, with employees bringing personal devices to the office (BYOD) and connecting to the company network, sensitive corporate data must be protected and meet compliance issues.
• Siloed management of mobile devices isn’t efficient. Or cheap. Additionally, integration with third-party infrastructures is complex and challenging.
• Provisioning and configuring mobile devices isn’t, either. With a lack of standardization and security among the various mobile devices, access to VDI and cloud is also complex.

These are just a few examples of how mobile device management is expanding in the dynamic workplace and the numerous challenges it presents not only to your IT department, but also to your CIO, organizational security, and overall business. These are significant hurdles, and it is imperative that IT overcome them and ensure end-users have access to business data from the device of their choosing. 

In the coming weeks Matrix42 will be rolling out resources designed to help IT departments develop a mobile strategy and successfully complete their organization’s mobile initiatives. All of this mobile complexity isn’t going away, and the growing number of platforms in the market will only add more complexity for both the end-user and the IT department. Matrix42 is helping to simplify the challenge of mobile device management – one that will only get bigger with time…or at least until the unveiling of the next Akamai report.  Stay tuned!