CIO Exec Series: 5 Things Vendors Don’t Tell the CIO about Mobile Device Management:CIO Roundtable Nov 1st 11:30-2:30

MDM – Mobile Device Management…Even the thought of it is frightening. I have a tough enough time managing a Blackberry, 2 laptops, and a Playbook. How would I control things that I don’t own? This leads me to the next question. Are we talking about a mobile device that the company owns or is the device owned by the employee?

I have been reading some analyst reviews of MDM and have mixed this with my own field experience over the past year to reach a few conclusions. As you read this, remember that these are devices that the employee owns and not the company.

  1. BYOD/OC does not lower TCO. In fact it increases support costs.
  2. BYOC does not get around the fact that Windows admin skills such as image management, scripting, group policy admin, and application packaging are still needed.
  3. IT should not manage what IT does NOT own.
  4. Zero Client Approach – A zero footprint approach should be used with BYOD/OC devices as a first resort. (see RZSAFe for details)
  5. Client Based Approaches – As a fallback approach to Zero Client ,three viable client computing models exist to support BYOC/OD computing. SBC – Server Based Computing, HVD – Hosted Virtual Desktops, and WSV – WorkSpace Virtualization

If you have to load a client on a mobile device, what I like that is emerging for IT is WSV – WorkSpace Virtualization. I have worked with Citrix Technologies for 15 years and have always had a fondness for their SBC – Server Based Computing model. However, the ability to work off line or via connectivity that is spotty has always been a challenge.

With WSV, IT starts to bridge this usability gap by giving the users the ability to ‘check in’ and ‘check out’ their Corporate PC image. IT can require the same security policy be applied to this image as in their corporate machine. I like VMWare’s approach in WSV with MokaFive.

What I am really looking forward to is VMWare’s Mobile Virtualization Platform with Horizon Mobile. We discussed this at the last CIO Symposium in July and this will be a real game changer for supporting work functions and security on personal mobile devices. The best part is that BOTH sides (employee and company) will be in control over their respective data.

November 1st we are going to explore these topics more deeply at the CIO Roundtable in Columbia, MD 11:30-2:30PM.

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