New Mobile Computing Challenges Loom for MSPs in 2015
When it comes to mobile computing MSPs should be gearing up for a lot more complexity going into 2015. For all practical purposes usages of mobile computing devices has been fairly limited to accessing email and using browsers to surf the web. But by the end of this year most employees will probably have as many five to ten applications developed by the companies they work for running on their devices. For MSPs that means developing a capability to manage mobile applications, not just the devices they run on, will be critical requirements in 2015.
According to Phil Redman, vice president of mobile solutions and strategy for Citrix, mobile applications almost by definition will be accessing a mix of backend service running on premise and in the cloud. As such, IT organizations will be looking to work with MSPs that not only have application management expertise, but also familiarity with the entire scope of their enterprise IT operations.
New challenges for managing mobile data
Making that potentially even more complex, Redman noted that governance issues surrounding data sovereignty, will also conspire to make managing what data gets accessed depending on where a user is actually physically located even more challenging.
Redman said that Citrix also expects to see a fair amount of adoption of both Windows 10 and Windows 8 in the New Year; partly because both platforms make it simpler to manage mobile applications alongside Windows Phone devices. In fact, going forward application updates along with the management of Windows platforms is going to function a lot like it does on mobile computing device today than it does on existing Windows 7 and Windows XP systems.
All this means that MSPs are going to have to come to terms with two new realities in 2015. The first is the need to deploy management frameworks that can support both applications and devices. The second is that the processes they have in place for supporting existing desktop applications are not going to be particularly effective as Windows 10 and Windows 8 systems become more prevalent in 2015.
Of course, Windows platforms will not be the only thing MSPs have to worry about. Apple iPad tablets will still be everywhere. And when it comes to smartphones, variants of the Google Android operating system continue to multiply.
All told, mobile computing in 2015 is most certainly going to be major challenge for both MSPs and their customers. The good news is that it definitely creates new opportunities for MSPs; assuming, of course, they that can master all the mobile computing intricacies involved.
