Can the small to medium sized business gain from Smart phone management systems?

The market place is quickly being populated by products providing varying levels of Smart phone control and management for the Enterprise customer (e.g. MoblieIron, Air-Watch). The standard packages include application bundling, expense monitoring and data management, and more recently the goal of permitting personal device use i.e 'run what you brung' OR bring your own BYO (re: Citrix)

The gains to enterprise seem clear but can the small to medium sized business benefit from such a service? Until now we've seen a small number of providers tending to focus on particular operating systems only (e.g. JAMF Software for iOS devices).

The question we're asking is whether it's cost effective to deploy these newer Enterprise level systems for the SMB market. Clearly, there isn't the mobile provider 'lock in' as the SMB may not necessarily need new mobile devices, so no 2 year contracts. The saving is by avoiding new mobile device agreements, the close monitoring of business-relevant call charges and the security gains for existing devices. These all seem compelling reasons to deploy such a service.

With respect to cost savings, there is no argument the SMB can gain from the new analytical data layer. However, currently these systems remain prohibitively expensive to purchase and license.

The SMB may also prove reluctant to adopt such a system based on the security argument. Many now regulary use faceless cloud data and back up services seeming to demonstrate a 'we don't care' attitude to data security.

There is no doubt these products will be pitched at the SMB market. Most of the mobile network providers are putting together management systems with their hosted offerings (i.e. Vodafone OneNet) including independent cloud hosting firms such as EVAK Technologies offering a cloud based MobileIron solution. Whether the SMB will accept that they can increase control and cut costs by engaging these Phone management system, and then go on to purchase remains to be seen.

Virtualisation for the SMB?

it was just over 3 years ago when my colleague, Ray Kingdon, explained to me the concept of Virtualisation (Virtualization to those 'over the pond') and the work he was project managing for numerous UK banks. When he explained under-utilisation, reduced energy footprint, disaster recovery gains and one machine replacing 100, I was sold. In fact, my mind was exploding with the possibilities of what this could mean.

While there is clearly no question of the gains virtualisation offers to enterprise and datacentre environments, can the same technology truly deliver the comparable gains to the Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMB) market? Most importantly, can the general SMB be bothered, especially with the current economic environment.

We're convinced the gains are there. From a server perspective SMB may have up to 10 servers but more than likely 2 to 3. Virtualising these individual servers down to the single machine almost irrespective of platform, has proven cost effective with excellent gains in resource use and disaster recovery implications.

It's becoming easier and less costly to achieve, with significant vendors now in the mix.

From a desktop perspective, earlier versions of Virtualisation enabled simultaneous operating systems to function, if not a little shakily. They did work though. From our perspective this meant businesses looking to depart from the PC platform could still keep a toe in. Earlier versions of VMware and Parallels have now been replaced by stronger, easier and more integral versions.

The possibilities continue to grow, from the Mac-based business wishing to run a SAGE Accountancy network (Windows only) up to the financial institution consolidating thousands of server instances. In fact, some commentators are questioning where it will all end. How many virtual machines can you realistically operate and maintain? Welcome, the virtual server farms or elastic compute clouds. It's big and it's happening.

As with change, it's a commitment and belief in both the gains for the business and the concrete technological gains the new concepts can bring to the table.

Further reading:
http://bmighty.informationweek.com/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218600641&cid=RSSfeed_bMighty_All
http://blogs.zdnet.com/virtualization/?p=1226
http://www.parallels.com/uk/products/server/mac/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/virtualization/?p=1240

Snow Leopard Mail and Exchange

So it's here and in the consumer hands. The questions I expected to be thick and fast have been more of a trickle. When can we switch over, what applications will be disabled (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3258), do we need new hardware and what happens if we've just bought new hardware with the previous Leopard OSX (http://www.apple.com/uk/macosx/uptodate/)?

Initial upgrade installations have all gone well. Performance does seem enhanced. Many changes have been made away from the standard users eye, but these should manifest themselves in the simple tasks like starting, shutting down, TimeMachine speeds and Mail's general efficiency!

We've long been stuck with the Mail app, it's random SBOD (spinning ball of death), the sent Mail sitting in the Outbox quirk, and the incompatibility with the most common Mail server, 'Microsoft Exchange'.

Well, now a large change has been made. Apple have licensed Microsoft's Exchange technology, to enable Mail, iCal and Address Book to integrate with Exchange Mail systems (http://www.apple.com/macosx/exchange/). Previously, this has been barely possible and has notoriously involved numerous additional points of failure via third party apps etc… Otherwise, it has meant the purchase of the 'full version' Office 2008 suite. This is the only version with a copy of Entourage capable of dealing with Exchange (costing approximately £260 per seat)!

With such a claimed level of integration, Apple must be aiming for SMB market share.
However, I haven't come across any other users who think the acknowledgement of local calendar, contact data and the mix with Exchange based calendars (including global contacts lists and groupings) is a huge jump on for the Apple Mail app!

Sources used:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8227071.stm
http://www.bmighty.com/blog/main/archives/2009/08/does_apples_sno.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8224517.stm

iPhone - for business or pleasure?

There's no doubt about the excellent entertainment functions of the iPhone. The ability to listen to music, watch/play media and answer the phone in an Apple specific, kinesthetic way is very popular. The iPhone applications have become no less than a phenomenon with the more significant productivity and CRM providers realising the potential (e.g. MarketCircle with Daylite).

The latest Mail server synchronisation is excellent via Microsoft Exchange and the more cost effective Kerio option. The cross platform ability has significantly jumped forward.

ActiveSync works very well and permits a quick and easy set up to receive Mail, contacts and calendars.

Now place the iPhone in a semi-corporate setting, with emails arriving constantly, calendar and appointment changes, SMS messages confirming meetings and network hungry apps. Can the phone cope with the intensive use and reliance that is now assumed and trusted, by, for example, the Blackberry range? Well, it seems once you're used to the touch screen (and some find that very difficult) the phone itself is just about up to the job.

However, and this is a big however, it looks as though the UK phone network provider isn't living up to their end of their ‘exclusive' bargain. The main complaints I've heard, and have to respond to, are the general poor mobile phone network speed, lack of coverage and the inability to use the phone for any amount of constant time (especially when on the move). This in some cases has forced users to have two phones, a Blackberry and an iPhone and reminds me of my days with an iPod and separate phone, very irritating.

The rumours of the current network provider losing exclusivity in the UK seem to be becoming more concrete. Our recent quizzing of some Apple Retail stores and Vodafone partners has again reinforced that October, if not, December could be the time for a change in network provision..

The iPhone is quickly becoming the tool of choice, but until the mobile phone network can match the users’ expectations, other devices will remain at the top of the business user list.