Top trends in enterprise mobility for 2009: Cisco

Enterprise Mobility Outlook

Top trends in enterprise mobility for 2009: Cisco

Paramjit Singh Puri, Business Development Manager, Advanced Technologies, Cisco Systems, India & SAARC, presents his views on enterprise mobility

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Here, Paramjit Singh Puri, Business Development Manager, Advanced Technologies, Cisco Systems, India & SAARC, presents his views regarding the top trends in mobility, specifically, enterprise mobility.

An IP-based network serves as the most cost-effective, service rich platform for mobility services and applications for both business and personal needs. While the access medium can (and should) change dependent on user location, an IP-based network serves as the converged platform to connect different work and personal spaces. In addition, in the spirit of open standards, companies are embracing an open network platform which allows a wide range of ISVs to develop integrated applications. The intelligent work services in the network (such as QoS, Policy, Security etc) transparently enable a seamless mobile collaboration experience for individuals and business professionals between wired and wireless worlds.
Mobile applications such as location-based services as an intriguing opportunity for businesses to mobilize not only their employees, but their assets. The internet revolution is coming to the wireless works. The internet revolution has not only changed the economics of how we communicate, it has fundamentally changes how we work, live, play, and learn. It is expected to see mobilization of rich broadband internet-like applications by existing and new providers to deliver mobile multimedia, mobile advertising, m-commerce, mobile social networking and mobile communications applications with the added benefit of an excellent, un-tethered user experience.
Social networking and streaming video go hand in hand when it comes to personalizing a user’s experience. Enabling users to exploit video as a means of communicating and also as a means of entertainment has prompted service providers to become experience providers, further enabling the connected life. They are enhancing both the experience and reach of the consumer by offering streaming digital video over many different screens.
There is a strong focus on enterprise wireless LANs; businesses of all sizes, across many industries are embracing wireless LANs to mobilize their employees, partners and assets.
Mobility applications can be classified into three key areas: Insight, Collaboration and Awareness. Insight is delivered to employees by mobilizing applications across the enterprise. Any business application delivered to the point of need promotes a more agile workforce, with the ability to make smart, informed decisions. Collaboration is about extending Unified Communications to the mobile environment. From applications like WebEx to presence-based apps, the workplace truly can become the mobile workplace. Finally, awareness is about a business gaining visibility and awareness into its assets. This takes us into the realm of RFID and mobilizing the asset.
Security and wireless networks have been a popular topic for years. In the past, hackers looked to unsecure wireless networks as back doors into secure enterprise networks. In many industries, this has resulted in personal data theft that has resulted in industry fines. On the personal mobile device front, the biggest concern has been encrpyption, password protection, posture assessment and access control and remote data wipe in the event of asset loss. Ironically, we are getting to the point now where wireless networks are being deployed now FOR the purpose of security, instead of being a security threat. This has been made possible by strong advances in the areas of wireless encryption standards (802.1x and WPA2), wireless intrusion and prevent systems that are integrated into the network, and new scalable tools for mobile device security and management.
The Unified Communications system for the mobile workspace allows businesses to extend the collaboration and productivity benefits of unified communications in the office to employees who are mobile on campus or on the go.