VDC Research: Enterprise & Government Mobility Market Blog

Sapphire: Cloudy With the Promise of Business Transformation

SAP kicked off the first day of their annual SAPPHIRE NOW event this week in Orlando with 4 press releases (http://www.news-sap.com) - two of which pertain directly to enterprise mobility. First, the company announced that its Afaria device management solution was available on Amazon's Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. The AWS Marketplace will offer a fully configured SAP Afaria 7.0 server, that brings a new UI, Windows Phone 8 support, an app portal that is integrated with the SAP Store, as well as mobile analytics dashboards for BI reporting. SAP clearly sees the need to be aggressive as vendors such as AirWatch, MobileIron, and Fiberlink are enjoying significant success in the channel and in acquiring new customers. In this vein, SAP revealed competitive pricing ($1.11 per user/month), as well as the ability trial its Afaria solution for free (a first for the company).

SAP has built a sizeable roster of managed mobility partners such as (Atos, HP, Rogers, and Swisscom - to name just a few) that will be able to execute the new business that emerges from the AWS Marketplace or offer a co-branded instance of Afaria in the cloud via their own cloud. SAP's Sanjay Poonen (President, and head of SAP's Mobile Division) hosted a roundtable and provided some color around the value proposition of moving Afaria to the cloud that he sees for the company's existing customers and prospects. SAP seems to be settling on the name "Afaria Cloud Edition"

“By offering SAP Afaria on the secure, scalable AWS cloud infrastructure ... and making it as easy as possible for customers and partners to test and deploy the industry’s leading mobile device management solution in an economical and reliable fashion”

The second mobile-oriented release centered on the company's furthering of its mobile security portfolio - SAP revealed that it has partnered with Mocana, and will resell the company's flagship security solution (Mobile App Protection or MAP). "App wrapping" is a core element of Mocana's MAP solution, and was a notable hole in SAP's holistic EMM strategy - while many of SAP's competitors offer app wrapping solutions, Mocana has significant tenure, IP and presence in federal markets (the company has been active in these markets since 2002), offers a robust solution, and is a good choice as a partner for this capability. Some have criticized SAP for not developing this capability on their own, I disagree, as does the company's co-CEO who made clear that he recognizes the value of partners in filling gaps in the company's product portfolio. The partnership with Mocana is just one element of the mobile security enhancements that SAP has revealed and SAP's Poonen made it clear that the company recognizes the need to emphasize mobile security "cyber security is increasingly a board room priority, and as such, iron-clad mobile security is job one for all CIOs and CISOs to execute their mobile strategy” - no doubt about this, and in this vein, the company has evolved its SAP Store solution (the company's MAM offering) which now offers a mobile app distribution storefront, which includes secure distribution of internally developed and purchased third-party apps - this was long overdue, and positions SAP as a true end-to-end EMM solution provider.

HANA Enterprise Cloud - Speed/Flexibity/Reliability

To date, the wide majority of SAP's customers remain largely "on-premise" - however, the company has clearly come to recognize that its customers are ready, willing and quickly moving to the cloud. SAP saw small and more nimble competitors such as Salesforce (not small any longer), NetSuite and Workday capitalize on its lack of a fomalized cloud strategy and has made notable acquisitions to better position its application portfolio for the cloud. The acquisitions of SuccessFactors and Ariba made it clear that SAP was serious about moving to the cloud - the company's HANA cloud (which SAP boasted had ~30M users on it today) takes the strategy even further by opening up a platform on which the company can foster innovation by giving new partners the ability to develop apps and solutions to run on the HANA cloud.

Stay tuned to our blog for further updates from Orlando.

Geek Sapphire stat: there are 5.2 miles of optical cable installed at the Orlando convention center for broadcasting video at this event.

 

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Apperian Automates Custom App Deployments

Apps are the reason why we all love our devices, and our future is without question going to be app-centric. From a business context, we see organizations continuing to advance their mobile strategies and move well beyond just providing their employees access to email towards broader usage of productivity and collaboration applications (which are increasingly custom developed apps). Enterprise-oriented ISVs are also very active in sharpening their mobile focus and expanding their mobile applications portfolios ― additionally, data from a recent survey we conducted into the usage of app development platforms/tools shows that organizations are (finally) beginning to meaningfully take advantage of these solutions to create custom applications.

While there are several approaches to enable secure app management that include containerization, OS partitioning and virtualization (to name just a few), an app store component is core/key as it not only facilitates app discovery and entitlement, but brings enterprise-grade security and IT-friendly features that can help to simplify app distribution and management.

Mobile IT Investments Required to Support our App-Centric Future

BYOD has clearly impacted and changed the way we work, and has brought to light the need for investment in 3rd party software tools to support expanding mobile workforces. Clearly investments in the enterprise have started with solutions to mitigate against the inherent security risks that come with supporting multiple mobile platforms ― however, secure and efficient app management capabilities are increasingly important for organizations that are actively developing custom mobile apps. While many organizations are using a single platform approach from tenured vendors like Antenna, Kony or Verivo, several large multi-national organizations I’ve spoken with not only use multiple development platforms and tools, but are dissatisfied with the manual and often cumbersome processes associated with deploying custom apps they’ve developed. In this vein, functionality that can streamline app delivery while not “locking” a user into only using a single tool for all of their mobile app creation and deployment needs will be welcomed ― any mobile-first vendor that can deliver this capability will also be an attractive partner for organizations that are expanding their usage of custom mobile applications.

With the announcement of its Publishing API Program, Apperian has brought its customers the ability to publish apps directly from the UI of its program launch partners ― the initial partners that Apperian has disclosed with the official launch of this program include:

• Alpha Software
• Antenna Software
• AnyPresence,
• Appcelerator
• FeedHenry
• IBM Worklight
• iFactr
• Intrepid Pursuits
• Kawet
• Kony Solutions
• Verivo Software
• ViziApps
• Xamarin

While the list of participating partners includes the most popular development platform / tool vendors, Apperian’s publishing API is public, which gives additional vendors the opportunity to integrate and offer their customers one-click deployment to Apperian’s application management platform.

Apperian continues to demonstrate it prowess in effective (and swift) partnering – I know for a fact that the company held numerous discussions at MWC to line up partners for this launch. The company recognizes its strengths, and has formed key partnerships with important security-oriented vendors such as Ping Identity for SSO, Mocana for granular app level policies and Appthority for app reputation/risk analysis to strengthen its platform and market position. As with all mobile ecosystem channel/partnership arrangements, there are varying degrees of coopetition between Apperian and several of this program's partners – for example, many launch partners have their own application management plays – however, this is to be expected, and I see this program as a significant development for organizations active in developing custom apps that have to deal with app signing, testing and other issues associated with piloting multiple version of apps that aren’t ready for full production environments.

IT Still Challenged

While MAM solutions ease app deployment, it is still important not to underestimate the complexity of upgrading an installed base of corporate app users, who are spread across geographies, languages, by carriers and platform. This, without question, makes for challenging deployment scenarios. These challenges are further magnified for IT when server changes require synchronization (a common occurrence in enterprise environments). For this program to be a success, Apperian will need to dedicate resources to co-marketing and sales training for its partners – I expect this, and will be eager to learn how customers are utilizing these capabilities.

Will AT&T's Attention to Mobile Developers Pay Dividends?

AT&T held the 8th iteration of its developer summit this past January in Las Vegas. The event kicked off with the company’s first “hackathon” of 2013 (AT&T held 28 of these in 2012) and offered attendees a full day of mobile-oriented sessions, ranging from technical deep dives to go-to-market strategies for enterprise-oriented developers. This was my second year attending this event, and I came away with a very positive impression of AT&T’s commitment to fostering its community of developers. It is clear that the company is raising the profile of the event. Not only was the attendance up from 2012 (with ~2,700 developers on hand, this was the largest event to date), but AT&T has also added executive presence to the event. Ralph de la Vega, the President and CEO of AT&T Mobility, typically keynotes this event; however, this year he was joined by other key executives, including the company’s CTO and CMO. AT&T also landed Cisco’s Chairman and CEO John Chambers as a keynote speaker and “rock stars” in developer circles like Christian Heilmann from Mozilla to lead breakout sessions. Scheduling the event ahead of CES was a smart move, as it gave the event a good representation of both the media and analyst communities (as well as a critical mass of mobile-oriented developers).

Click here to read this entire research note.

Solving the BYOD Challenge Without Managing Devices

Join me on February 6th to learn about enterprise-grade mobility solutions for BYOD environments

As a long-time industry watcher you've likely seen many acronyms come and go (WAP, ASP, ISDN, etc.) ‒ BYOD is no exception, and will ultimately disappear from our vernacular as well. However, given that we are in the early days of mobile enablement, the trend is sure to impact the modern workplace for years to come, and will pose both an opportunity and a threat for CIOs and IT administrators who will ultimately be supporting an increasingly diverse roster of mobile devices.

While some might argue that the "genie is out of the bottle" and that we are well beyond the point controlling to usage of personally owned devices in the workplace, there very well may be potential for the pendulum swing back toward more centralized IT practices for managing mobile deployments if the ROI garnered from BYOD programs doesn’t materialize. Regardless, the issue will be top of mind this year and next for CIOs as they grapple with device diversity, billing, security, acceptable use policies and more as our mobile workforce continues to grow.

The BYOD trend has a broad range of market participants focused on solutions to capitalize on the opportunity that mobile enablement can bring while mitigating against the risks that comes with personally owned devices being introduced into corporate environments. While there are many viable options that have come to market, one solution category we see gaining traction is enterprise-grade "workspace" or "secure container" solutions that can improve the security and manageability of mobile platforms.

If your organization is grappling with BYOD and in the process of implementing a BYOD strategy, we would welcome your participation in this important upcoming webinar being sponsored by Globo PLC ‒ Solving the BYOD Challenge Without Managing Devices. We will be discussing how CIOs are dealing with the complexity that BYOD programs introduce, as well provide guidance on how your organization can alleviate the pressures associated with the mobile enablement of its growing mobile workforce. Globo will be demonstrating its enterprise-grade mobile solution that is flexible, scalable and designed with BYOD environments in mind.

 

May Event Recap (1 of 2), CTIA Orlando

The city of New Orleans hosted the spring edition of the CTIA conference earlier this month — the last time this event was hosted at the Ernest N. Morial convention center was in 2005. While the event continues to attract a broad range of exhibitors focused on all things mobile — while CTIA doesn't release attendance figures, the concensus is that the number shrank from the ~40K that attended the 2011 Spring event in Orlando. Schedule wise, the event is challenged, as many enterprise mobility-oriented participants have had a busy first half of the year (event wise) with must-attend shows for a good segment of the ecosystem.  Both CES and NRF are always scheduled for January, MWC and HIMMS are typically both in Feb. — May was extremely busy, with BlackBerry World, SAPPHIRE, Interop and the CTIA all occurring in the first 3 weeks of this month. While “conference fatigue” played a role in the level of participation at the CTIA event — it certainly didn’t help that Interop was scheduled during the same week. In fact, several folks I met with were able to squeeze both shows in (impressive).

As would be expected, Steve Largent kicked off the event with some bullish statistics on mobile device proliferation, and the need for additional spectrum. This theme was echoed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (a keynote speaker the first day of the show). The "spectrum issue" is sure to be a critical issue in the coming years, particularly when considering the rapid pace of device proliferation that continues to outpace the aggressive growth rates that many market watchers (including VDC) have predicted. There is no doubt that our congress and the FCC will need to make some difficult decisions in the coming months, and that spectrum policies will be continue to be debated.

The show kicked off this with the EMF's Appsolutely Enterprise event, where companies such as App47, Apperian, Bitzer Mobile and Boxtone were provided with a forum to detail their solutions and value proposition to the market. I did not have the opportunity to attend the event, but I did meet with several of the vendors that presented and their feedback was good — while the attendance at this event was less than expected, it was well received.

While the spring edition of this event primarily targets a consumer oriented clientele, there were two notable enterprise oriented announcements that caught my attention:

TeleCommunications Systems (TCS) announced its Enterprise Security and Protection (ESP) cybersecurity portfolio:

TCS has been readying this solution for some time, and has done well in productizing its solutions for the enterprise. TCS is looking to enterprise markets for growth, as the firm has historically been a strong player in government markets.

Fresh off of closing an $8M C round of funding in early May, Visage announced that it had entered into an agreement to integrate its MobilityCentral platform with Concur's expense management system using the Concur Connect platform.

While CTIA scored a coup with snaring Bill Clinton to keynote the final day of the show, it seemed like there were a lot of folks at the Louis Armstrong airport on Weds. evening. Overall, the show was a worthwhile event to connect with clients and catch up, as far as “news” goes — the above referenced stories sum it up, the timing just wasn’t there for a lot of participants who had already made Q1 announcements, and who are likely prepping their Q3 announcements. Roger Cheng from CNET wrote a good piece at the conclusion of the event, questionning whether the current twice a year format will be sustainable for CTIA — I think Roger has it right, I'm looking forward to the fall event in San Diego, the enterprise focus is the appropriate way to go for the association and their constituents in my view.

Stay tuned for my next event recap — SAPPHIRE Orlando.

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The Enterprise Mobility Bundle

Over the past few years, several of the innovative solutions which have emerged from mobility-oriented ISVs have not only proven to be commercially viable, but have quickly become important and increasingly required components for a complete end-to-end enterprise-grade mobility solution. The growing variety and similarity of market leading mobility solutions are making vendor selection decisions less clear and have created the opportunity for channel constituents to offer a blend or bundle of services from best-of-breed mobile-oriented ISVs. An opportunity has also developed for established ISVs with mobile strategies to round out their product portfolios by developing their channels partnerships. The core components of an end-to-end mobility solution were initially somewhat narrow in scope - however, the advent of BYOD has created the need for a broad range of solution components that goes well beyond MDM. As smartphone and tablets gain acceptance as viable application platforms, IT personnel will require solutions that cover app development, security, remote access to corporate databases and applications, as well as a cost-effective way to manage mobile app provisioning, decommissioning and integration with existing business processes.

While carriers and systems integrators (SIs) have an opportunity to play a key role in the channel for a bundled package of core enterprise-grade mobility solutions, tier 1 players (e.g., AT&T, Verizon, Accenture, IBM, and HP) continue to demonstrate an inability to move quickly in establishing working channel relationships with mobile ISVs. This in turn is creating an opportunity for tier 2 and 3 SIs, as well as mobile-oriented value-added resellers with integration expertise in mobile software and solutions, (e.g., DecisionPoint, Stratix, and Vox Mobile) to partner with innovative mobile ISVs and offer differentiated and cutting edge mobility solutions to their customers.

M&A strategies will be increasingly important moving forward, as strategic acquisitions can enable a vendor to add core mobility capabilities to their product portfolios and get closer to providing and end-to-end solution to the market. For this reason, we think that additional M&A activity is likely in the coming months...

Survey Says: Mobile Managed Services have Arrived

We fielded an end-user survey to IT professionals, and line-of-business managers this past April and captured some very interesting market trends, perceptions, and attitudes surrounding deploying and maintaining a mobile workforce — end-users in organizations both large (65% of >$1B in annual revenue respondents) and small (52% of <$1B in annual revenue respondents) clearly stated that they were "very interested" in outsourcing a broad range of enterprise-grade mobility solutions.

Looking more closely at this "suite" of mobility solutions we saw that it ecompasses everything from device management and security, to application development, integration, billing / expense management etc. — in fact, we asked respondents to rate each of the items in the graphic below as to their level of priority for inclusion in a mobile service delivery platform — each rated >7 on a 10 point scale where 10= Most important.

 

Our data also clearly showed that the key drivers behind this receptivity were as follows:

• Device proliferation ("bring your own tech")
• Lack of in-house skills to support mobile applications and platforms
• Simplifying the end-user experience and ensuring adoption
• High expectations for costs savings

Considering these trends, we see enterprise environments as ripe for the adoption mobile solutions as managed service. However, we do see the increasingly complex channel relationships and the number of vendors “behind the scenes” participating on mobile solutions as a challenge for mobile focused vendors moving forward. 

The post summarizes several of the findings from our upcoming Mobile Managed Services Report

Keeping Pace with the Enterprise Mobility Solutions Market in 2010

By the end of 2010, the enterprise mobility market will have experienced the most change that we have seen in the past decade.  2009 budgets for enterprise mobility solutions – often one of the last segments of IT budgets to be crimped - were cut.  This exacerbated an already price and margin challenged mobile platform segment and has given managed services and hosted applications considerable traction.

Even before the latest recession, a number of core vertical markets and installation environments were slowing down, offering less margin, and forcing attrition in some supplier community segments.  We expect that this will continue and perhaps even accelerate in 2010.

Three years ago, application software became the first, and most important, solution element to be specified by users.  Today, wireless service is increasingly cited as the number one facet of an enterprise mobility solution to be specified; pushing traditional hardware platform, solution AND ISV providers aside marginally, or in some markets, materially.

These forces above, and others, are making channel architecture and partner decisions much more important. To help companies operating in, or targeting the enterprise mobility market analyze and compare their options - VDC is once again, planning to publish our Enterprise Mobility Solutions Service.  This market research will address the broad range of technology developments and consumer trends which we see unfolding in the enterprise mobility solutions market in 2010 and beyond.

We encourage you to contact us to learn more about this research, which is currently in our founding sponsorship period and provides early subscribers some significant benefits.