RIM Fights Back: My Interview with Canada’s Global News Network

Got Questions About The Enterprise Impact of iOS 7?

June 13, 2013 by bobegan 21 Comments

Courtney Buchanan who writes for the Chief Mobility Officer Blog over at Visage Mobile writes about some of the new enterprise features that Apple announced ( Glossed over ) at WWDC. It’s a pretty complete list with some interesting commentary – take a look.

iOS 7 is a major update for the enterprise. While much of the media focus emphasizes the big changes to the user interface (UI) there is a substantial suite of new features and upgrades to the existing capability of iOS that will impact the enterprise – most of them very good.

Of course the devil is always in the details. Based on what I see in Apple’s Developer site/community, the release of the API’s for many of these functions seems elusive (as of yesterday at least, unless I missed something).

What to do:

CIO’s and their relevant mobile focused resources should keep an ear to the ground and not get caught off guard by the potential impact of this upgrade. The good news is that the iOS 7 release is still months away.

The questions raised by a sample of CIO’s, IT EVP’s and some enterprise BYOD suite providers that I have spoken to since the iOS 7 announcement include:

1. SSO and Per App VPN: What protocol is being used (ipSec, SSL, other? and what are the back-office requirements? What is the impact on our enterprise app storefront design (existing and in process)? What are the methods of authentication/identity and policy?

2. What role if any does the new iCloud Keychain play a part of the enterprise class SSO, and in either case, where are the conditions for username/password storage?

3. Auto-App Updates: Can this be shut off? Are they (finally ) controls to prevent OS upgrades by enterprise employee’s before an IT / developer review? (for security, compliance and enterprise app breakage). What is the compatibility of auto app updates work with container or app wrapper schemes ? How granular are the auto-app controls, if any (iTune App store vs Enterprise App store?).

4. Airdrop – “interesting improvements for the consumer” but what controls for sharing exist for the enterprise?

5. Volume App Pricing: Most comments were very positive, citing a much-needed change but lots of chatter related to the fragmentation across platforms. This is not really an Apple issue in isolation, but one where enterprise business leaders are clamoring for some standard mechanisms.

6. How will iOS 7 impact existing EMM suite solution providers, including the usual cast of characters (BYOD, MAM, MIM, MDM and Ei-Ei-O solutions) -:)

7. There is also some down in the weeds chatter about Apple’s messaging service (APNS) that is in use by most (all?) MDM providers to wake up the on-device MDM profile and call home for updates etc., that is relevant to what Apple may, or may not, be doing to increase its service reliability.

I’m sure as the dust settles and Apple starts to talk more about the detail schemas on these and the other enterprise goodies in iOS 7 more questions will arise.

One immediate action that enterprises might consider given that Apple’s developer qualification bar is so low: warn employee’s against any thought of paying the $99 bounty to get a developer account and downloading the iOS 7 beta to their phones.

What do you think about the enterprise feature set intended iOS 7? What do you like? What worries you?
Feel free to leave a comment here or write to me at bob@sepharim.com

Note 1: http://blog.appsense.com/2013/05/the-risk-of-ios-device-management-with-mdm-only-solutions/

Jon Wallace, CTO of Cloud at AppSense does a really good job of laying out some the issues I am thinking about around MDM and Apple’s APNS issues here: The Risk of iOS Device Management with MDM Only Solutions

Filed Under: BYOD, Enterprise Mobile Tagged With: Apple, Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, ios, Macintosh, security, User interface, Visage Mobile, WWDC

Investing in Mobile? 6 Tips for CIO’s

April 25, 2013 by bobegan 20 Comments

If CIO’s don’t have a plan for mobile, they have a problem. A big one.

This is true regardless of whether we are talking about how people use mobile devices at work, shop online or at retail stores, pay for goods and services or become more socially engaged. For CIO’s the question is, “Are you ready for mobile?” And if not, what do you need to do?

Here are 6 tips for CIO’s:

1. Mobile makes you more secure, not less secure.

Consider these:

As an enterprise moves beyond MDM point solutions and builds mobile services as an ingrained part of their back office / infrastructure services, existing latent security defects are discovered and fixed;
Building for mobility promotes a greater focus on protecting data in motion and at rest; and
Increasingly, enterprises are building their own apps and app stores and distancing themselves from consumer storefronts.

Advice: Build for mobile first, then secure. Don’t let the uncertainties of security prevent you from getting started.

2. Mobile is the new desktop.

Mobile mandates the need to provision, support and secure a heterogeneous structure throughout all layers of the OSI model. Worry less about “gadgets” and more about “data fluidity” and user experience. Consider that these items are a long overdue paradigm shift irrespective of mobile in the way CIO’s and their IT organizations should think.

Advice: If you already have a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), layer in Mobile Oriented Services (MOS) as a platform with an eye towards retiring MDM point solutions. If not, start building one.

3. Be ready to fail and react.

Consider that most companies:

Overestimate the number of features a mobile application should have;
Underestimate the infrastructure impact (e.g., 100,000x more traffic on your Salesforce, email or Web server);
Create a poor user experience.
Fail to build in analytics

Advice: Don’t let the fear of failure prevent you from getting started. Fail fast and move forward faster.

4. Focus on work first and play second.

Consumers with gadgets in hand have created hysteria for IT and a gold rush for companies like Apple, Google and Samsung. And like it or not, your enterprise has subsidized this gold rush on a several fronts. The pressure to satisfy the consumer emotional gratification throughout this era (eg.” play happy”) has largely come at the cost of the “work happy” business goals of the company.

Advice: Establish an Employee Center of Excellence with a charter that balances the needs of the business and the desires of the employees.

5. Think beyond the app.

CIOs need to lead their organizations to answer two questions: What can we do better because of an investment in mobility, and what can we do that is new that will drive incremental revenue and profit?

Advice: The best return on mobile occurs when organizations think forward and outward, not backward and inward.

6. Mobility is just getting started.

The one sure thing that CIO’s can count on about mobility is change. In terms of a human evolution analogy, we’re just at the point where we’ve discovered how to make a fire out of twigs and sticks.

Advice: Make a plan, build a playbook and keep your visors on.

Please react and tell me what you think !

The research brief was originally published in full through my work with Computerworld’s, Enterprise Mobile Hub at http://www.enterprisemobilehub.com/blogs/bobegan/how-cios-can-navigate-mobile-hyperbole Please check their site out!

Customized reprints via Sepharim Group are available. Please contact bob@sepharim.com or call 401-345-5000 for more details.

Filed Under: Enterprise Mobile Tagged With: Apple, Chief information officer, CIO, Enterprise Mobile, featured, Mobile device, Mobile device management, Service Oriented Architecture

Nokia Maps Put Consumers at Ease, Unlike Google or Apple

September 20, 2012 by bobegan Leave a Comment

People don’t remember phone #’s, because they don’t have to.
People don’t need to worry about spelling, because they don’t have to.
People don’t need to know how to get from one place to another, because they don’t need to – or shouldn’t need to.

Amid a rash of criticism of Apple’s new mapping system on iOS 6, Nokia deserves some bragging rights.

After years of less than engaging or clever marketing, I am pleased to see Nokia stepping up to the plate and getting its act together. Clearly Nokia marketing is striking while the iron is hot. Earlier today I took notice of a clever – and open – comparison of Nokia comparing its upcoming Lumia 920 to Apple’s new iPhone 5 (arriving on our doorstop tomorrow).

Now Nokia is standing on rooftops, calling out to anyone who will listen, that they are the best in location and mapping on phones. Not a rushed afterthought (I’m looking at you Apple). And certainly not a loss leader for an advertising scheme (I’m looking at you Google). And frankly while Google does “ok” most of the time, Nokia deserves its bragging rights because it makes you feel local, wherever you are.

When Nokia bought Navteq, I worried that 20 years of research, platform development and mapping would fall into an abyss from which there is no return. Fortunately my worries did not pan out. Nokia continues to advance the features, the accuracy and the already very good consumer experience of its Navteq platform.

Over the years, I’ve toyed with Nokia’s based Navteq maps. During my most recent tests on a Lumia 900, I found Nokia’s mapping system to be exceptional. Why? Location products must remove worry from the customer, not create more worry. Unlike Google and Apple maps, Nokia Maps put customers at ease instead of causing anxiety. Whether I was traveling in Europe, or sparse areas north of Toronto, the Nokia system never had to apologize because it “could not connect to the cellular network”. Nor did I ever get upset with the system for not giving me enough notice to take an exit, or turn left. My experience remained consistent as a made my way through public transportation systems, or remote islands like Turks and Caicos – whether I was walking, biking or driving. And my car never showed up on the wrong side of the road.

Whether you are a consumer who wants to occasionally to use your phone to accurately map your drive, or a road warrior with little sense of direction (like me) Nokia is the top of the line and will keep you on time and at ease.

Nokia completely owns, builds and distributes it mapping content, platform and apps.

Filed Under: Apple, consumer experience, Google, iPhone, Location, Nokia Tagged With: Apple, google, ios, iphone, Navteq, Nokia

Nokia UK Graphic Comparing Lumia 920 to Iphone 5

September 20, 2012 by bobegan Leave a Comment

If you have not bought an iPhone 5 and are looking for new handset options, Nokia is making its case for the soon to be released Lumia 920 through a clever graphic.

Worth a look if you are in the market.

Nokia Graphic Comparing iPhone to upcoming Lumia 920

Filed Under: Daily Insights and Observations Tagged With: Apple, iphone, Nokia

RIM To Manage Apple and Google Devices

November 30, 2011 by bobegan Leave a Comment

RIM (re)announced its BlackBerry Mobile Fusion offering today. The intent of the solution is to simplify (unify) the management of smartphones and tablets running BlackBerry®, Google® Android® and Apple® iOS® operating systems.

While many enterprises are able benefiting from expense reductions because employees are bring their own devices to work (BYOD), these same companies face a myriad of issues (technical and expense) relating to the management and regulatory compliance. RIM’s solution should help that cause.

Enterprises that already own a BES server will find this new capability a very worthy upgrade. The jury is still out if this new offering from RIM will be enough to attract new enterprises to a RIM solution in the face of quick-moving, very capable upstarts like Mobile Iron, Apperian and security plays like Mocana. The new software is the result of RIM’s acquisition of the mobile device management company Ubitexx in May.

For more information, visit www.blackberry.com/mobilefusion

Is RIM Shooting Itself In the Foot With Mobile Fusion? (readwriteweb.com)
RIM Plays to Its Strengths With BlackBerry Mobile Fusion Management Package (pcworld.com)

Filed Under: Blackberry, Daily Insights and Observations Tagged With: Apple, Blackberry, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, ios, Mobile device management, Research In Motion, RIM, Ubitexx

Google Buys Motorola Mobility: Don’t Let The Smoke Get In Your Eyes

August 17, 2011 by bobegan 2 Comments

There has been a lot of focus and fuss over the value and cost of the patents involved in the Google/Motorola transaction.

While Google’s Android market share growth is on a fast track, so are the lawsuits over patent violations, the complaints about platform fragmentation and interest about how the company will drive profits because of continuing investment in Android.

And to be sure, I have my views, but in a nut shell this whole acquisition deal raises more questions about the direction of Google – and the Android eco-system at large – then the clarity it creates. There are many moving parts. But at the end of the day, having thought about this for 36+ hours, it really comes down to two scenario’s.

1. By the end of 2012 Google will exit the hardware business completely, meaning it will dissolve Motorola Mobility in whole or part through sale or dissolution.

or…

2. By 2015 Google aspires to be a dominating force in hardware and distribution – likely attempting to mimic Apple‘s vertical solution model.

What do you think?

- Bob

Filed Under: Android, Google Tagged With: android, Android Market, Apple, google, Microsoft, Motorola, Motorola Mobility, Patent

By 2012, Mobile in-App purchasing will be the next big thing

August 4, 2011 by bobegan Leave a Comment

interesting article by gigaom.com – worth a read. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Daily Insights and Observations, mobile applications Tagged With: android, AndroidMarket, Apple, AppStore, business models, developers, google, ios, iphone, mobile application

Traffic monitoring just getting started

July 29, 2011 by bobegan Leave a Comment

..and apparently VC’s recognize the opportunity.
Inrix raises $37mil for international expansion, largest VC round in Seattle so far this year. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Daily Insights and Observations Tagged With: Apple, august capital, google, Inrix, inrix inc, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, location, Microsoft, million, raises, the business journals, Venture capital, Victoria Cross

Application store revenues to reach $3.8 Billion in 2011

July 27, 2011 by bobegan Leave a Comment

Combined revenues from the four major mobile application stores run by Apple Inc., Google Inc., Nokia Corp. and Research In Motion Ltd. will leap 77.7 percent in 2011 to $3.8 billion, according to iSuppli.