What steps does the enterprise CIO need to consider in order to prepare the business for tomorrow’s world where cloud mobility is the new normal?

Should we be dropping the term mobile computing in favour of comfortable computing? There’s an argument for that, given the near-ubiquity of handheld computing devices – which includes tablets and laptops as well as phones and phablets.

Comfortable computing

So what is comfortable computing? It’s a recognition of the fact that nearly everyone has a device of some sort that allows them to compute and communicate from anywhere they can receive and send a signal. Cloud mobility encompasses this but goes a step further, acknowledging that the back-office effect of comfortable computing is a need to access data held on corporate storage, whether in a private or public cloud.

The business driver for this phenomenon, you will not be surprised to learn, is the desire to access that data at any time from anywhere, allowing employees, as well as customers and partners, to be productive no matter when or where they happen to find themselves. No manager is going to object to that, but how to make it happen, both securely and with maximum performance?

Data organisation

As with any kind of data management involving cloud computing, the key is to organise the data and access to it in a systematic and secure manner before making it publicly available. It involves planning exactly what access will be needed to which elements of the data, and locking it down to provide the minimum access privileges that allow people to get the job done.

As with any kind of data management involving cloud computing, the key is to organise the data and access to it in a systematic and secure manner before making it publicly available. It involves planning exactly what access will be needed to which elements of the data, and locking it down to provide the minimum access privileges that allow people to get the job done.

Data access is not the end of the story however. Comfortable computing doesn’t just mean that everyone is comfortable using data while mobile, but also that they expect and want all the information that used to be accessible only at the desktop to be provided on their device. In many cases, this also means ensuring that applications are integrated not just with the data store but also with each other.

A classic example of this might be diaries and other scheduling or collaborative software. Given that users choose the device they want, they will also want to choose the applications. Many of them may come bundled with the phone.

What this means is that the number and types of applications that individuals use is expanding, while the need for them to be able to share their diaries and other scheduling information is undergoing a similar explosion. This creates a considerable challenge, but one that needs to be resolved if the true benefits of mobility can be reaped.

First steps

Where you start from in order to get to the point where the right individuals can access the right data, and sharing can happen when it’s supposed to, depends on the business itself and its level of progress towards the mobile nirvana.

Smaller companies with little legacy equipment and few processes will find it easier to adapt to a cloud-mobile world than those with many legacy systems and perhaps regulatory requirements that also need to be satisfied. Under such circumstances, pilot schemes and selective steps towards cloud mobility, starting with the low-hanging fruit, are likely to be the best choices.

Whatever the level of progress the business has made along this road, if formal planning has yet to be started, now is the time to do so.

Manek Dubash

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Tags: Mobility, Technology