Adopting True Mobility - A Unified Workspace approach

Mobility has long been the inevitable step for every organization, particularly with the advent and popularity of laptops. This was followed by the rise of corporate mobility due to smartphones and other technologies, which was supported by companies like Blackberry. Along with growth in mobility, one of the most pressing concerns for any organization is corporate data security. Today, mobility has matured to a whole new level and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has become one of the most influential trends that will affect every IT organization sooner or later. Like any new technology, BYOD brings its own set of fears and challenges, for all stakeholders equally. Obviously, every company wants to ensure that technologies are not misused and that their data not compromised while trying to give the best end user experience to their employees. At the same time, companies are battling to understand the implications of BYOD-led policies, security aspects, user support, legal obligations, personal spend management and governance.

Currently, mobility within most organizations is restricted to laptops and the accessibility of emails via corporate mobile devices mainly Blackberry. In many cases, this has now been extended to the use of iOS and Android devices by activating technologies like ActiveSync. However, for the successful implementation of True Mobility, it is imperative that employees have mobile access to the complete range of applications as they have on a desktop/laptop. This is easier said than done as porting applications to various mobile devices are a herculean task by itself. Moreover, in a mobile environment, smaller form factor displays are unproductive for most data creation. However, most organizations tend to use such small form factor devices inevitably making employees use traditional desktops/laptops thereby restricting mobility. So, the key areas to resolve before any organization takes the mobility plunge would be Application availability, unified secured access, file storage space and effective device management. Using existing technology it is possible to achieve these key areas using a variety of point solutions, but it would ultimately create a whole new software inventory, which is a nightmare for any company's IT division. With the acquisition of ZenPrise, a well-known player in the Mobile Device Management space, Citrix attempts to resolve this by introducing XenMobile MDM Edition and the Citrix Mobile Solutions Bundle. The Citrix Mobile Solutions Bundle is promoted as the Enterprise Mobile Management platform that could provision, deliver and manage enterprise resources.

XenMobile is promoted as the Enterprise Mobile Management platform that could provision, deliver and manage enterprise resources. This is a welcome addition to Citrix's existing client virtualization product range, which was positioned in the Leaders category of the IDC MarketScape vendor analysis two years in a row. While most organizations are working on their mobility blueprint, Citrix is busy preparing itself to address this space that they refer to as the Unified Workspace. Whether they gain the first mover advantage in this potential space, only time will tell.

About the Author

Rajiv Pillai- Chief Technology Evangelist, Global Infrastructure Services

Rajiv Pillai is the Chief Technology Evangelist with the Global Infrastructure Services division and currently working on strategic themes like Enterprise Mobility enabling businesses to take benefit of upcoming trends like BYOD, VDI, Big-Data, etc. in a commoditized mechanism. Prior to Wipro, Rajiv was with Apple Inc. leading technology where the foundation of mobility, customer centricity and thinking different made its mark.

Rajiv has over 17 years of varied experience from pre-sales consulting to technology sales to post- sales support management with a proven record of accomplishment in technical account management, business development, technology positioning and developing & managing strategic alliances.