10 mobile trends: Should you care?

8. Mobile device management

Mobile device management (MDM) is the emerging trend CIOs are likely to be most familiar with and most interested in. MDM enables sensitive information on mobiles and smart phones to be backed up or deleted in case of theft or loss of the device. As mobility starts to become as pervasive as desktop computing in many organisations, equal care must be given to the information stored on portable devices as to patching security holes or managing user-access rights.

According to analyst house Ovum, the market is set to be worth $435m in 2009. Ovum analyst Jeremy Green told silicon.com that at present there remains a schism between the view of operators and the view of enterprises as to what MDM entails - for the former, it's about enabling users to get easier access to more data applications. For the latter, it's about lock and wipe - keeping the user from doing things they shouldn't with their devices and minimising the risk when they do.

Ten mobile trends

1. FMC
2. Salesforce automation
3. VoIP
4. Payments
5. 3.5G - HSDPA
6. Location-based services
7. TV
8. Device management
9. M2M
10. Antivirus

He said: "It's not that the operator and the enterprise are pulling in opposite directions but they have been pulling in different directions."

Nevertheless, as corporate mobility becomes more widespread and devices harbour more and more critical applications - salesforce, field force, mobile CRM - MDM will fast become indispensable.

For CIOs who have a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, some MDM is included. For those with a more diverse mobile environment, an external supplier could be an option.

Green noted: "With mobile device management, the operator can seem like the logical place to start but doesn't have to be." He added CIOs must first assess how much of the management they are willing to outsource. "It can seem like a bottomless pit," he concluded.

RATING: 5/5 - should be on everyone's radar.