I know this sounds like an odd title for a blog post on THIS site, but let me give you some context. I was speaking to a company last week for a briefing. They were incredibly patient with me because I was hacking up a lung while dealing with the flu that has been going around. They were telling me about some new product announcements, as well as some of the progress they had been making in the market. They were also telling me how this played into their overall vision for enterprise mobility.
I stopped and asked them...so are you sure you are in the enterprise mobility space?
OK, so again, I know this sounds a little weird. But let's check off the "easy" parts of enterprise mobility:
- Handset manufacturers. Easy. You've got (among others) Apple, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, RIM, Samsung. Check.
- Platform vendors. Google, Microsoft, Palm, RIM, Symbian. Check.
- App Vendors. Antenna, Dexterra, InfoLogix, Pyxis, etc. Check
- Device Management. CloudSync, Internoded, Mformation, Odyssey, Perlego, Sybase, Ubitexx, etc. Check.
- Service Management. Boxtone, Zenprise, etc. Check.
- Security. F-Secure, McAfee, Net Motion Wireless, Symantec, Trust Digital (although they are way more than just security with their MDM capabilities), etc. Check.
- Help Desk. Log Me In (among others). Check.
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Others. Agito Networks, Avaya, Visage Mobile. There are TONS of companies that play in the space of enterprise mobility.
So what about WiFi companies such as Aruba Networks, Bluesocket, Cisco, Extricom, HP ProCurve, and Meru?
They all talk about enterprise mobility, but are they REALLY in the enterprise mobility space?
The reality is that until only recently, corporate WiFi deployments were providing employees wireless access for corridor warriors - the people who were in an office going from meeting to meeting etc. That way, they could check their email as opposed to paying attention to the meeting. ;-)
Over the last year, WLAN vendors have been pushing applications that can be deployed on the infrastructure that has already been deployed. So sure, there are new applications such as Voice over WiFi, wireless video, RFID, location based services, etc. But how many of these are truly MOBILE vs. UNTETHERED?
Voice over Wifi solutions (such as the ones from Polycom) are great for a warehouse or even a call center or a carpeted environment. Vocera does the same for hospitals. Video surveillance is not moving - meaning the cameras are put in place and that's it. RFID is great for retail or a warehouse. Stuff might be moving, but the people using it are not. What about M2M? Is that mobile?
I'm not knocking ANY of these solutions. They all provide great value to organizations, but are they truly MOBILE? FMC (fixed mobile convergence) blurs this because companies like Agito use the WiFi capability of a smartphone.
I guess this is why when I was at another research firm, I did both Wireless and Mobility research. I covered Mobility research in the context of the bullet points at the top of this entry, and then covered Wireless research as anything related to 802.11 related issues. So, was I right? Are 802.11 (a.k.a. WiFI) related topics part of enterprise mobility or not?
I'd love to hear from you all and get your thoughts.
