Gartner: Mobile Is Not The Edge, But The Center, Of Your IT Universe

[Former Member]

My ZDNet blogger-in-arms John Fontana is at Gartner's (formerly Burton Group's) Catalyst conference in San Diego this week, and wrote up two interesting pieces about mobile (even though he's more of a security/privacy expert).

The first is Gartner's take on What's In and What's Out in mobile. Some of the things that are Out: Corporate devices, business tools, Crackberries, Laptops, Ethernet + 3G, Flash, and more.

Some of the things that are In, says Gartner: "My device", "my tools," iPhones, 802.11 + LTE, HTML 5, and more.

Check out John's post for the entire chart.

In his other piece, Gartner analysts Paul DeBeasi and Jack Santos declare that mobile is forcing CIOs and IT managers to THINK BIG. It's not just about their client/PC architecture, but their entire infrastructure, including technology, business processes, legal and HR rules and more.

"Enterprises must approach mobility as an architecture problem," said DiBeasi. "Mobility effects legal, HR, policy, security, support, identity, business infrastructure and application decisions."

Rolling out mobile devices creates a whole set of decision points: Should you upgrade your Wi-Fi networks? Overhaul your telecom expense policies and/or change carriers? Deploy/change your device/PC systems management software? Change general rules surrounding employee ownership and privacy?

Not moving forward on mobile is not a realistic choice for IT, since the devices are "becoming the focal point of our personal and professional lives," said DeBeasi. What seemed like a small, minor star turns out to be the center of a vibrant galaxy:

Credit: ShutterStock.com

Some other choice quotes:

DeBeasi: "We knew consumerization was driving IT, but mobility is driving consumerization...Mobility is so insidious, it actually effects how we think, how we act and interact."

Santos: "The revolution will not be televised, it will be mobilized."

(By the way, this is the same drum that I banged in my book, The Mobility Manifesto. You can download the e-book here.)

DeBeasi admits that mobile, as with any new deployment, creates tradeoffs. The less you plan ahead, the more your BYOD program or device/app deployment will create security risks and higher costs without boosting revenues or creating efficiencies.

The moral, as always, is that you need to consider every variable and cover every base. Gartner has introduced something it calls the Mobile Reference Architecture to help IT and business leaders with that. Here's part of it:

Credit: Gartner.com

You can read more about Gartner's Mobile Reference Architecture here.

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