The Rise of Mobile Content Management

It’s increasingly starting to look like mobile device and even application management are only table stakes in a much larger mobile computing game. Instead of thinking only in terms of devices and applications, IT organizations want to be able to manage how specific pieces of content manifest themselves on mobile computing devices.

To address that specific issue VMware (VMW) announced it has pulled together multiple technologies from its portfolio to create the VMware Collaboration Bundle, which includes AirWatch Content Locker, file synchronization and sharing software; SocialCast enterprise collaboration software and AirWatch video distribution software.

Deployable on premise or in the cloud, Kevin Strohmeyer, senior director for Workspace Services at VMware, said this particular bundle of software distinguishes itself because it provides a framework for managing content, not just applications and devices.

SocialCast provides a base collaboration capability. But it’s the combination of video distribution software and Content Locker that creates some unique value. Increasingly the most widely consumed form of content on mobile computing devices is video. Organizations that are creating that video for everything from training to sales and marketing campaigns want to able to lock down how those videos get shared, said Strohmeyer.

The VMware Collaboration Bundle is extensible in the sense that solution providers can provide integration with a variety of other content management tools and services to create a framework for managing content. It's especially useful in a world where the mobile computing devices are becoming the primary way content is getting consumed both inside and out of the enterprise.

For many solution providers helping customers manage content represents a whole range of new opportunities. While the channel has missed out on much of the rush to embrace tablets and smartphones, helping organizations manage how content gets rendered on any device represents the equivalent of an aftermarket opportunity for the channel. In fact, it’s arguable that it’s only juts now that there is enough of a critical mass in terms of devices to warrant investing in a mobile-centric approach to managing both data and content.

Of course, helping organizations manage content requires a level of expertise that encompasses everything from compliance to security as well. What is changing, however, is the tenor of the conversation with the customer. More often than not the mobile computing device is only a means to an end. The much bigger challenge is figuring out how to actually control who gets to see what content when based on not only who they are, but also where they happen to be.