As I try to keep my finger on the pulse of the world of enterprise mobility, I have the privilege of speaking to senior executives at a broad set of companies looking to not only disrupt the current technology set available for enterprise mobility, but also companies that are trying to disrupt the overall ecosystem and business models of the industry. One of the great "next steps" I have been thinking about of late is how cloud computing will impact enterprise mobility. So, the big question is whether the cloud is complementary, disruptive or game changing for enterprise mobility.
I believe the answer to the question is "D - All of the above." Mobile solutions in one sense, ironically prevent seamless connectivity. Hunh??? Think about it. Other than your corporate email, and the occasional mobile application that will speak directly to a central (web) server, you have to manually sync your mobile to your laptop to make sure your files are all copied/replicated. That sounds pretty simple, but how many times have you looked for a file in one place and not been able to find it, only to find an "outdated" version somewhere else?
This is where I think cloud computing can really help. Imagine having ONE centralized storage area for ALL your connections - laptop, desktop and yes, even your mobile - such that you can navigate via the web to a centralized repository and access any of the files you might need. Take it one step further and consider how Software as a Service applications can/should be completed interconnected with that Cloud.
Enter Cempahore Systems. I met yesterday with Tyrone Pike, Cemaphore's President and CEO. He was demoing for me his new MailShadowG application for Microsoft Outlook and Google Apps. Very quickly, MailShadow is an Outlook Add-in that allows the user to have (near) real-time synchronization of their Exchange email, contacts and calendar to a GMail account. That's actually some pretty slick technology. But what does this have to do with mobility? A lot actually.
No matter how good Exchange is, it needs a fair bit of ongoing maintenance, and that creates downtime (yes, scheduled, but tell that to the user who needs to send the email NOW). Imagine then being able to use your mobile (or even traditional web browser) to access the GMail account when your Exchange server is (un)intentionally down. Not only does this combine cloud computing with SaaS, but in fact makes for an interesting play on business continuity and disaster recovery. Hunh???? What if your Exchange server goes down unintentionally, for whatever "disasterous" reason. Your work can't stop...so hop on over to that GMail account with your Google Apps and you can keep on doing what you were doing (even with your mobile) until your company's systems come back on line.
So this is certainly an interesting play in terms of messaging, still the #1 killer application for mobile devices. I'd like to see Cemaphore expand beyond Exchange servers (believe it or not, but not ALL companies use Exchange) as well as provide a server side version (remember, this is an Outlook add-in). Tyrone assured me they are working on both initiatives.
I would like to see this concept of Mobile Cloud Computing go even further. Heck, I want to see content and knowledge management systems like SharePoint go to the cloud with mobile hooks. Like I mentioned earlier, imagine having all your files and data in the cloud. It ensures higher levels of system reliability (assuming you work with a reliable vendor), reduces business continuity challenges and in fact reduces the overall IT management costs for end-user organizations.
This is all good, but it does make me think about how we are coming full circle back to terminal computing (remember mainframes?).
