VDC Research: Enterprise & Government Mobility Market Blog

The Rise of the Rugged Enterprise Smartphone

Smaller form factor devices—namely rugged handheld computers and smartphones—remain among the most common device types that support line-of-business (LOB) workers across nearly all industry verticals. VDC estimates that manufacturers will deploy a total of 3.4 million rugged handheld computers and 32 million smartphones in 2015. While there is some overlap between use cases for rugged handheld devices and for smartphones, the latter are more aligned with highly business- and mission-critical applications, which place a premium on reliability and have unique data capture requirements. However, the rugged smartphone has emerged as a new form factor in recent years. These devices are similar in design and user experience to the consumer-grade smartphone, but they feature enterprise-grade levels of ruggedness and improved daylight readability. The rugged smartphone caters to end-users who want a more ergonomic and touch-centric device with integrated data collection options.

 Green field opportunities for an emerging device category

Despite concerns of erosion from consumer-grade devices and the recent but strong emergence of the rugged smartphone into the marketplace, VDC believes the new form factor will serve primarily as a complement rather than replace the traditional “brick-style” rugged handhelds, which cater to a core group of end users for data collection-intensive applications in areas where data entry via touchscreen remains impractical. 

The rugged market, despite its recent return to growth and inclusion of the rugged smartphone, will face numerous challenges ranging from shifts in consumer demands to macroeconomic trends. While the Americas remain the primary engine for growth throughout 2015 and onward, this growth will largely be overshadowed by a weakening European market that has been exacerbated by Greece’s economic instability and a weakening euro that has dropped to historic lows in much of 2015. Additionally, the impending release of Windows 10 on rugged devices could see many companies opting to extend their replacement cycles, which could depress rugged handheld sales in 2016 and provide consumer-grade devices with additional opportunities to expand their enterprise presence. 

Growing competition from consumer-grade manufacturers

The broader non-rugged or consumer smartphone opportunity in the enterprise is expected to exceed 200 million units, representing 14% of total smartphone shipments. The growing availability of peripherals and to augment the functionality of consumer devices and provide better protection are further opening the opportunity for consumer smartphones in the enterprise, especially for line of business applications. In addition, leading vendors such as Apple and Samsung are now actively targeting the enterprise, looking to develop new and higher value-adding opportunities, particularly as consumer sales have begun to peak. Their addition to the enterprise market has the potential to have a significant impact on how organizations choose to mobilize their workforce, affecting not only price sensitivity, but OS choice, application development, and replacement cycles. 

Samsung Unpacks Potential with Samsung Pay and Note 5

Yesterday, the heads of Samsung took to the stage at Lincoln Center in New York to announce its latest devices – the S6 edge+ and the Note 5, as well as the release of its new payment system, Samsung Pay.  With the advent of the iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung has had to work harder to differentiate its product beyond being the default Android counterpart to Apple. The Note 5 manages to accomplish this handily with the newest iteration of the S-Pen, which provides substantive enterprise functionality. The Edge +, on the other hand, relies more on aesthetics diversity, as the functionality of the edge, while somewhat improved over the original S6 with the introduction of app shortcuts, remains limited and somewhat uninspiring. Although many reviewers have focused on the incremental nature of the developments of the devices and how they fare compared to the iPhone 6 Plus, the larger, more compelling story for VDC is the potential for Samsung Pay to dominate the mobile payment market and the continued evolution of Samsung into a much more enterprise-focused OEM. 

The potential for Samsung Pay’s “Universal Availability”

Originally announced at Mobile World Congress, Samsung Pay emerged once again to take a prominent role in yesterday’s Unpacked event, complete with launch dates for the US and Korea. While Apple Pay succeeded in raising the general public’s awareness to NFC payment capabilities, its impact on retail has been limited to date. Despite steadily growing numbers, access to NFC-enabled payment terminals has been limited to a select group of partners and has encountered considerable opposition from major retailers, notably the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which includes major chains like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Dunkin’ Donuts – forcing retailers like CVS to back down from unofficial support of Apple Pay following its announcement.  In the aftermath of the initial dust-up, NFC payments have gained ground, but are far from mainstream at this point. Samsung Pay, on the other hand, nimbly sidesteps many of these issues from through technology it gained from its acquisition of Loop Pay in February of this year, which can be used with both NFC and traditional mag-stripe devices. As a result, Samsung Pay can be used with nearly all devices capable of taking credit card payments (including smaller peripheral devices like Square), giving the payment system tremendous reach and potential for widespread adoption. Samsung has further upped the ante by partnering not only with major credit card providers, but also enabling store-branded credit card, membership cards and gift cards, bringing the idea of a truly digital wallet that much closer to reality. With its backwards-compatibility to traditional payment systems, Samsung Pay is poised to leapfrog Apple Pay to dominate the growing digital payment market, providing Samsung’s flagship devices a much-need element of differentiation.

Balancing enterprise-readiness with consumer appeal

The delicate act of balancing a much more enterprise-focused device with consumer desires was clearly visible at the Unpacked event, where much of the attention centered on the new devices’ media capabilities, like its improved VDIS for video stabilization, and the introduction of Live Broadcast, which competes with real-time video streaming companies like Periscope and Meerkat.  Although both devices feature enterprise-ready capabilities (like the integration of KNOX on all flagship devices) and the use of SideSync 4.0, it is the Note 5 that stands out as Samsung’s Flagship enterprise device. The Note series, more than other series, is designed with enterprise at the forefront, given its emphasis on multitasking and the use of stylus with the integration of the S-Pen. In addition to the ability to sign and print documents on the Note 5, BlackBerry’s aesthetics appear to have rubbed off on Samsung, as the company unveiled its first-ever physical keyboard accessory, which attaches to the screen to facilitate data entry.

Following the showmanship of the main event, it was the later, smaller B2B event that revealed the extent to which Samsung has devoted its attention to the enterprise. Despite the relative lack of fanfare, EVPs Injon Rhee (Enterprise Business Team) and Joe Stinziano (Samsung Business) discussed the strides made with the integration of KNOX 2.5, which further enhances the security elements of 2.0 from a carrier and IT management standpoint, to the Edge+ and the Note 5. KNOX, as Stinziano emphasized, remains their dedicated brand and its identity is built squarely around the enterprise and, when used in conjunction with Samsung Business seeks to provide end-to-end mobility solutions and security. As he aptly noted, having a smartphone is increasingly an indispensible element of mobility.  Samsung also emphasized its partnership with Red Hat, which helps to provide industry-specific applications and mobile solutions. The latter is an important step for Samsung as it looks to counter the much-touted partnership between Apple and IBM’s MobileFirst which was announced last summer.  With demand for consumer devices cooling, the pressure is on – not just for Samsung, but for the entire smartphone market to provide enterprise-grade, IT-friendly devices that also have consumer appeal.

The potential for Samsung to go from enterprise-grade to mission critical

With the rugged handheld market only now emerging from a protracted period of uncertainty, there is considerable opportunity for consumer-grade devices, particularly when complemented by a full suite of enterprise services and industry-specific know-how. The lack of success from the launch of Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld as the next generation Windows OS opened the door for Android and Apple alike, as many decision makers have opted to postpone refresh cycles and are evaluating less traditional options, including consumer grade devices. Most rugged OEMs have been quick to fill the gap with smartphone-like handheld devices that feature Android, but there has been a notable degree of erosion in favor of consumer devices. This, when paired with the green field opportunities of smaller organizations mobilizing for the first time presents a tremendous opportunity for companies like Samsung and Apple, which can capitalize on decision-makers’ and end-users’ familiarity with the devices and UI. To do so successfully, however, requires a level of dedication to the enterprise that goes beyond hardware to include services and industry-specific expertise and applications. VDC will be taking a more in-depth look at what this means for Samsung in our upcoming VDC View. 

Recap: Qatalyst Global’s Managing BYOX & End User Mobility conference

Managing BYOX Event Recap

At Qatalyst Global’s Managing BYOX & End User Mobility conference, organizations such as PG&E, Fairfield University, and Aetna shared their experiences integrating mobile initiatives, while vendors including Apperian, Bluebox Security, Dilligent, IBM, and WorkSpot, explained how their mobile services could increase company productivity and efficiency. We had the opportunity to speak with several of the end users in attendance about their BYOx approaches — not surprisingly, most were still challenged by the complexities of implementing BYOx policies and proving the ROI of these initiatives. The Fairfield University’s CIO, Paige Francis gave a great presentation that illustrated how heavily mobile technology was relied on by her student body and how important it will be going forward to understand the expectations of future generations of workers and customers. Francis spoke at length about the difficulties of meeting student and employee technology needs in a campus environment and how Service Oriented Architecture concepts now applied to mobility (she described this as “Mobile Oriented Architecture”). We agree, as mobile devices and services will need to seamlessly interact with one another independently. 

End Users Know They Need to Deliver a Positive User Experience

Companies at the conference were at all different stages of their mobile journey exemplifying the differing pace of adoption. Some companies stood out, PG&E for example has developed and deployed a number of mobile applications to enhance field service operations as well as meet customer needs. Interestingly, the utilities industry, which had remained fairly stagnant in regards to technology over the past few years now stands positioned to develop rapidly as mobile and IoT technologies are incorporated to enhance business processes. Other industries such as health care have been keen to embrace mobile technologies, but issues surrounding contractual and regulatory obligations complicate initiatives. However, a major take away from the conference has to be that keeping it simple in both development and deployment is essential. Focusing on the end user — how the end user will use and experience the technology — can guide the process fairly completely, while financial constraints remain important considerations. As Steve Damadeo — the IT Ops Manager for Festo — explained, BYOD and mobile applications provide ample cost-saving opportunities as well as productivity gains if implemented with a focus on cost containment and user experience.

Privacy Considerations Important Going Forward

Providing a unique and outside perspective on the legal obstacles facing multinational corporations’ mobile plans was VDC Research’s own Eric Klein. His presentation touched on one of the many impediments to crafting an effective technology policy that incorporates mobile; from security and privacy concerns to regulatory and user experience issues. Achieving compliance with laws and regulations that are often archaic in relation to modern technology can be cumbersome. Case law as explained by my colleague Eric Klein has failed to keep up with technological development – particularly with regards to mobile technology. Baker & McKenzie’s data privacy and security expert Harry Valetk was in agreement, and spoke at length about this topic and echoed many of these sentiments. While it will take time, the case law will catch up, Valetk predicted that “regulators and courts will apply the laws as they are today regardless of if they more accurately regulate the technology of 20 years ago”.  

Note: This was a recap of the first day (7/15) of the 2-day event. 

 

Samsung’s Search for Success in Enterprise Mobility

The company is putting all the building blocks together to potentially become a significant enterprise mobility solutions and services player. 

In 2014, Samsung watched its mobile sales drop 21 percent as increased competition further ate away at the company’s market share in the smartphone space. Apple’s consumer-friendly iOS garnered greater control of the high-end smartphone market with the company’s release of a “large-display” iPhone 6 and 6 plus. At the other end of the spectrum, low-end manufacturers such as Xiaomi captured Samsung’s market share—particularly in emerging markets—by producing similar devices with lower prices. As a result, the rapid evolution of the smartphone market has left Samsung squeezed between, and battling Apple and low-end manufacturers. Cognizant of the adverse trend moving against them and keen for alternative avenues of differentiation, Samsung has for several years been increasing its mobile presence in the enterprise space—a market still fairly open for penetration following the decline of BlackBerry and relative neglect by Apple.

A Move into Business Services

When it comes to enterprise mobility, the consumer still rules. The proliferation of “bring your own device” (BYOD) policies throughout the business world requires that a company produce devices sought after by consumers. Given the highly-competitive consumer device landscape, Samsung spent the past few years developing partnerships, software-capabilities, and enterprise mobility expertise to augment their hardware business, addressing the security, management and support requirements critical to enterprise decision makers. To augment these partners, Samsung is also investing in enterprise mobility service capabilities and in January launched the Samsung Business Services program. This program takes a three-tiered approach to addressing the demand for mobility in the enterprise space and builds upon unique capabilities such as KNOX that Samsung has long been developing. At a high level, Samsung intends to be a technology collaborator with an extensive ecosystem of partners to provide mobile solutions to customers.

However, while providing comprehensive support to enterprise customers is helpful and desired by some companies, it will not alone significantly increase the demand for devices. Moreover, the idea that companies desire a seamless and integrated system for managing all things mobile is not revolutionary, with many enterprise IT powerhouses – for example Microsoft or IBM – increasingly well positioned to deliver these capabilities. The key challenge for a company like Samsung – that continues to derive the majority of its mobile revenues through hardware sales – is whether they can affect enterprise decisions in today’s heterogeneous/multi-platform environment. Our contention is that as enterprise’s mobility initiatives continue to become more strategic – and mobile deployment models shift from BYOD to COPE (or more enterprise influenced mobile decisions) – that these enterprise investments and initiatives will provide greater returns.   

A Vertical Focus for a Meaningful Impact

Another layer of Samsung’s enterprise approach is establishing vertical or industry specific know-how. Acknowledging that to become “business critical” requires, by in large, focusing on the nuances of certain industries, and creating specific solutions to industry problems; Samsung has tailored its products to the education, healthcare, government, hospitality, and retail industries. These large verticals possess certain characteristics and unique business processes that are in need of technological and mobile solutions. By addressing the concerns of these industries—security, regulation, rapid technological change, etc. — Samsung has the opportunity to become ingrained in business processes, and thus become “business critical”. Today’s these capabilities are still largely a work in process as Samsung invests in building out this institutional knowledge. Given the complexities and nuances associated with many vertical opportunities, this will require staying power from Samsung.

Another critical cog in Samsung’s enterprise push is their extended partnership with BlackBerry. Samsung has integrated BlackBerry’s mobile-billing and encryption technologies into its KNOX platform, enhancing its position in the high end of the security bracket in highly regulated industries. Following the collaboration on the BlackBerry SecuTablet – which features Samsung’s S 10.5 hardware and Knox for device encryption, secure apps and software from BlackBerry and app wrapping technology from IBM – new rumors are surfacing around a Samsung-BlackBerry co-developed Android smartphone. Depending on the success of these initiatives, even closer ties between both organizations is not out of the question.

Finally, the partnership between Red Hat and Samsung, to a certain degree similar to the one between Apple and IBM, looks to provide industry-specific applications that address business concerns and needs. Ultimately this is all about mobile applications and mobilizing enterprise workflows, an area that has been lacking. Leveraging Red Hat’s mobile application platform and optimizing enterprise specific applications on Samsung devices will be central to this relationship. However, the ability of these applications to address business problems will largely go under-utilized unless Samsung can reach the decision makers at these companies. Further in-roads must be made to gain the ear of decision-makers, whom often lie outside the IT department.

Staying the Course 

That Samsung is looking to capitalize on mobility demands from the enterprise space is not surprising. The company is putting all the building blocks together to potentially become a significant enterprise mobility solutions and services player. They are clearly not alone with these pursuits, with a more enterprise savvy Apple and a resurging Microsoft – among others – representing key challengers. Microsoft will be particularly interesting to follow with palpable anticipation surrounding Windows 10, their OneDrive for Business solution and leading enterprise identity and access management assets. With the enterprise mobility ‘debate’ shifting towards content and identity management, Microsoft’s position is especially strong.    

With much of the enterprise mobility opportunity still ahead of us, Samsung is increasingly well positioned. However, as a company that interprets success on quantity of devices sold, it will be critical for Samsung to set realistic expectations for their enterprise strategy. Staying power and focus will be critical.

Be sure to check out our upcoming VDC View as we dig deeper into this topic!

With David Krebs

How Microsoft can Gain Relevance in Enterprise Mobility

Microsoft has had fits and starts since releasing its first modern mobile OS in Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft has long been aware that mobile enablement has taken root within its customer base. While Microsoft has had the opportunity to leverage its cloud and software development capabilities and position them for the future, the company has struggled, and has seen little traction for its enterprise mobility related solutions. Since establishing its Enterprise Client & Mobility (ECM) team, Microsoft has been able to incorporate a broad portfolio of assets and products, namely: Windows Server, System Center, Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Microsoft Azure RemoteApp, Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Remote Desktop Services, and security. Though small, the ECM team has quickly become a key pillar of Nadella’s vision for a Mobile-First, Cloud-First focus. The team has been working hard on elevating the messaging around Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), which has Microsoft Azure AD Premium, Azure Rights Management Services (RMS), and Microsoft Intune at its core. The key will be to deliver on the value proposition that Microsoft has been leading with around its EMS suite — one vendor, one contract, one SKU.

Simplifying the EMM Procurement Process is Difficult

Microsoft’s messaging for its EMS suite is spot on. The company has correctly identified a major pain point that has historically plagued IT decision makers — licensing, contracts, and renewals. To compete and succeed, Microsoft must continue to work on educating its channel on the value play it has assembled in EMS as it has the right solution components in place for success. Microsoft has put together bundled pricing for EMS, which makes the product attractive for channel partners (at $7.50 per user/per month, EMS is aggressively priced — roughly half of what it would cost to acquire, Intune, Azure AD Premium & RMS separately. The company also plans to add Advanced Threat Analytics to its EMS suite in Q3 (via the technology it acquired from Aorata in Q4 of last year).

Microsoft has the right vision going forward (see below), but executing on it could prove challenging due to the intensifying competition in the market. Prominent EMM vendors such as AirWatch, Good, MobileIron, and SOTI have worked hard at streamlining and simplifying their pricing plans. Additionally, these vendors are working well with the mobile ecosystem as it evolves (for example every prominent mobile-first EMM vendors has integrated with Google’s Android for Work program [with the exception of Good]. Integrating with this program is critical to provide enterprise security for Android deployments going forward (there are alternatives such as Samsung’s Knox that provide the requisite containerization that is core to the Android for Work program, but even Samsung is now begun to support the program itself). Microsoft chosen not to participate in the program for very deliberate reasons — it wants to leverage the built-in MDM functionality it offers with Office 365 to lure customers away from their existing vendor. This makes sense, as Microsoft has chosen to not permit third-party integration with competing EMM vendors to its Office applications and doesn’t support standard iOS and Android APIs for its applications.

Easy Migration Provides an Opportunity

While many of Microsoft’s customers are likely to already be using a competing EMM vendors’ products, the migration process has also been streamlined; this has made it easy enough to switch over to Microsoft products (EMM vendors are still capitalizing on migrations away from BlackBerry’s platform). It seems as though customers are open to evaluating Microsoft’s EMS solutions as a means of consolidating disparate tools used to manage devices and applications. Identity is also being reevaluated as more companies mix cloud and on-premises software services. Intune does an adequate job in providing secure access to email and other Office 365 offerings on a wide-range of devices and operating systems. Azure RMS provides data protection, and hybrid Identity and Access Management (IAM) is anchored by Azure AD Premium, a service that nearly every company uses to authenticate its users. The emphasis on hybrid here it to highlight its importance of Microsoft's distinction of Hybrid Identity as the new "control plane." This is demonstrative of the company’s recognition of empowering mobile users on their device of choice while enabling IT with visibility into who is trying to access data and apps and providing a means of validating and authorizing the appropriate personnel.

Source: Microsoft

So What Does Success in Enterprise Mobility Look Like for Microsoft?

The firm’s recent restructuring (Nokia’s ex-CEO, Stephen Elop, along with Kirill Tatarinov, Eric Rudder and Mark Penn have been edged out of the company, and Terry Myerson has been elevated to lead the new Windows and Devices Group going forward) and the increasing emphasis on Windows 10 signals Microsoft’s desire to position itself as a cross-platform productivity solutions company and could potentially signify a de-emphasis of the company’s Windows Phone strategy. Instead, VDC expects that Microsoft will compete with its operating system and attract corporate interest through the OS’s ability to function across all Windows devices (computers, tablets, and phones). Indeed, Microsoft appears to be trying to make Windows 10 look and act more like iOS and Android and create an opportunity to port iOS and Android apps to the Windows 10 OS. If these apps are able to retain their look and feel, Microsoft may see more uptake with its Surface products.

Microsoft has made notable progress in augmenting and integrating its disparate product lines into a true enterprise-grade mobility management platform. However, the vendor has yet to prove it is making progress with real customers and needs to get some wins under its belt. Suffice it to say, Windows 10 will be a critical release for the company.

With Matthew Hopkins, Research Associate

WWDC: Enterprise Recap

While the themes at WWDC were consumer oriented, there actually were some key enterprise elements.

Apple’s highly anticipated annual Worldwide Developers Conference occurred on Monday at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. As expected, many of the developments revolved around consumer products, namely the Apple Watch and a new music streaming service, Apple Music. However, enterprise enhancements were also present, as Apple looks to increase its presence in corporate environments.

In keeping with recent tradition, Apple announced its new operating systems: iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, which allow for greater integration among devices. The new OS X does not include many new features, but iOS 9 provides some new improvements that enhance the competitiveness of the iPhone and iPad in both consumer and enterprise markets. The new iOS features a battery saving mode which Apple claims will add three additional hours of battery life.  The company is late in incorporating this feature, which consumers clearly have been asking for - other prominent OEMs such as Samsung, Huawei and HTC have offered this capability for some time now. iPads have become more business friendly under the new operating system as new multitasking features were implemented. In particular, the new split screen feature similar to that present in Windows and some Android tablets will allow users to use separate apps simultaneously. In addition, the iPad will include a trackpad feature allowing for greater control and quick typing. These enhancements should allow for increased user-productivity, and illustrate Apple’s attempt to further outfit the iPad as a hybrid- laptop replacement similar to Microsoft’s Surface tablet.

Despite the changes mentioned above, the WWDC did not entail any significant developments or changes that will affect Apple’s overall trajectory. The new operating system for the Apple Watch and the new music streaming service may increase consumer support for Apple products; however, the innovations relating to enterprise will likely not significantly increase corporate demand. The changes to the iPad amount to Apple merely catching up to Microsoft and Samsung by incorporating a true multitasking feature. This new development takes the place of an old feature claimed by Apple to be multitasking, but in reality was more akin to app-switching. New security features, such as the addition of a six-digit passcode and the option to force enable passcodes on corporate owned devices, will certainly garner support among those in the corporate world looking to protect their corporate information from what appear to be endless data breaches. This enhancement also follows in part from Microsoft’s emphasis on security, as exemplified by Windows 10’s sophisticated containerization capabilities.

Apple has also made clear on its website that several features important to the business community will be made available in the near feature. Promised improvements in networking and device management have the ability to greatly improve business processes through increased functionality. Unfortunately, Apple does not provide any information regarding these enhancements on their website so their usefulness remains a mystery. These are critical enterprise elements to iOS 9; to date Apple has done a great job at augmenting the EMM elements of its OS, and we look forward hearing more about these key features.

 

A key advantage for Apple remains its App store, which for the past year has included Microsoft Office as one of its offerings. The prevalence of the App store is exemplified by the fact that 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies feature an app in the Apple App Store. Furthermore, the new spotlight search feature should allow for greater efficiency in the utilization of applications, seeing as the search results will include information present in older apps that may have been forgotten. The unification of multiple platforms working and interacting together may allow for efficiency gains as employees work more frequently outside the office. Microsoft has followed Apple’s lead in attempting to develop a similar network across devices with its new operating system, Windows 10. However, while both these companies appear to have an eye on the future, the gains of such forward thinking may be farther off as companies will need time to realize the productivity and monetary gains from such integration. In essence, the WWDC highlighted Apple’s continued efforts to cater to its strong consumer base while augmenting its enterprise feature set.  Balancing consumer and enterprise demands is a challenge faced by all OEMs and begs the question- who will be the first to offer a business edition phone (a la BlackBerry)?

Event Recap – Citrix Synergy

Citrix succeeded in demonstrating it can innovate on application delivery and customer service

I had the pleasure of attending Citrix's Synergy customer event this past week in Orlando Florida. The event was well attended (about 7.5K on-prem, and roughly 5K remote attendees) and featured a nice mix of vendors on the show floor that ranged from small startups to heavies such as Cisco, IBM, Intel and Microsoft. After narrowly missing its Q1 numbers a few weeks ago, Citrix needed to demonstrate that its recent restructuring and organizational changes were positives; and that they were helping to transition the business to its next phase of growth. The company's GM and CSO for Workspace Services Geir Ramleth summed it up nicely when he said: "This is a new Citrix — we're moving in a more cohesive way." Citrix was successful in this vein, Synergy provided a big opportunity to showcase a robust innovation pipeline in front of the company's most important customers.

The Suite Always Wins (right?)

If you've been tracking the evolution of mobile enablement in the enterprise, you know that many vendors are vying to deliver "holistic" or "end-to-end" mobility solutions (suites). The goal is certainly a noble one, but it is not very realistic. Most large firms are working with several EMM and complementary security vendors, as well as with a variety of application development platform and tool vendors; while this is not ideal, it is a fact of life (today at least). However, as Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft continue to refine their mobility solutions, vendors like Citrix will need to focus on helping businesses simplify application delivery and provide them with tools that can help with implementing best practices and with  mobile architecture and security policies. Bottom line, differentiating is going to get tougher. From what I heard at Synergy, Citrix gets it, and is working hard on developing new products and services that will enable businesses to move beyond thinking about which devices to provision and support by offering device and network agnostic solutions that can manage modern mobile applications while enabling them to move legacy applications to a cloud environment via a single control plane.

The "suite approach" isn't going away (IBM, Oracle and SAP have proved that), but it is changing. Opening up platforms is critical moving forward; customers don't want to be "locked in", and need the flexibility to run the applications of their choosing. While Citrix maintains a broad portfolio of products: XenApp, XenDesktop and XenServer to secure data via virtualization, NetScaler and CloudBridge to secure the network, and XenMobile, WorxApps and ShareFile (and now Workspace Cloud) to provide a containerized environment for productivity applications, to share content and provision applications, it is a stretch to call these a "suite". However, the range of these solutions shows how many elements are needed in a modern enterprise. Not to mention important partners that vendors like Citrix must integrate with that can help deliver capabilities for streamlining app development, enhanced security, secure messaging, and user experience reporting/monitoring. Bottom line, suites sound good to customers, but require complementary solutions. While the vision and approach that Citrix is pursuing to enable their customers to seamlessly manage and provision modern mobile applications while helping them move to the cloud is the right one; others have moved in this direction too.

Feud Continues — Enzo and Beyond the Horizon

The fact the VMware unveiled its project "Enzo" the day before Citrix's Synergy event wasn't surprising (after all, Citirix announced key enhancements to XenApp and Xen Desktop the day before VMworld kicked off last summer). Regardless, both Enzo and Citrix's Workspace Cloud share a similar goal and  make use of a control plane to enable customers to deliver a comprehensive mobile workspace to their end users; with the aim of better orchestration between apps, physical resources and the cloud. I plan on digging deeper to learn more about the technical differences between these competing solutions; suffice it to say that these are complex and have the potential to disrupt how end user computing services are delivered. Both Citrix and VMware have robust solutions; however they both are challenged by the strong interdependencies that exist between their various solution components — not to mention limited backwards compatibility as they update their platforms.

One Final Thing ...

The big reveal at Synergy was Dynamic Containerization (DC) which appears to bypass the need to access and modify an app's source code (a cumbersome and very limiting process). DC brings the ability to containerize any publicly available app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. I had the opportunity to speak with several key stakeholders that were involved in developing DC; there is no question that Citrix has proved they can deliver this capability (I've saw a demo), however, I'm skeptical as to whether the method/IP is in violation of the TOS of both Apple and Google. End users would love this capability and have been asking for it; however this will be a wait and see as the product matures.

The #UNCEO

Mark Templeton has been with Citrix from the beginning, he's plain-spoken, down-to-earth and is the epitome of the #UNCEO. CEO's like John Legere and Marc Benioff may be the most prominent #UNCEO's, but Templeton should be right there with them (credit to my friend @bobeagan for mentioning this at the event). Not only does he pull off this vest, but Templeton made it a priority to visit with many of his company's partners on the show floor (even the smallest vendors).

Ping Mark and encourage him to be more active on Twitter - it's not too late. After all, Obama just joined this week!

Wrap

This blog didn't cover several of the important initiatives that were revealed at Synergy; namely: WorkspaceHub (a dongle which incorporates both BLE and WiFi and features with VGA and HDMI inputs) that leverages Octoblu (a Citrix cloud platform) to manage M2M interaction between devices by using sensors and wireless connectivity. The demo of this tech wowed the audience as it showed how a workspace could be seamlessly "moved" from one device to another. The integration with Amazon's Echo was the most impressive element as it enabled voice-control in the workplace. Concierge: which enables real-time customer service and support directly from within a mobile application (great use of #WebRTC). Citrix also showed off CubeFree: a modern version of the WiFi finder mobile app but for finding reliable workspaces (cool concept).

Upon leaving the event, it was clear that the company's key executives and product owner/managers had been busy working on the technology that was showcased. Citrix's vision is a good one, but it will definitely take time for companies to make a meaningful move in the direction that the company is moving in. There are a variety of factors that have placed CIOs in a holding pattern when it comes to extending mobile applications to their workforce. These range from the acknowledgment of not being properly equipped to support mobile platforms (from an IT and resource perspective) to being unable to successfully articulate the value proposition and ROI from mobile enablement to corporate leaders. But from what I'm seeing in the market, it will only be a matter of time ...

 

Could the Apple Watch be a tipping point for enterprise wearables?

In the days before the official launch of the Apple watch on the 24^th and Apple counting nearly a million pre-orders since last Friday, much of the tech world is abuzz with talk about the newest smartwatch to hit the market and the impact it could have on wearables as a genre. Although wearable devices have been on the market for some time, they have failed to garner any notable traction in the consumer market. The question remains as to whether the pricier, designer Apple Watch can be the catalyst for widespread adoption the way its predecessors were for smartphones and tablets and pave the way for greater integration of wearables in the enterprise.

The slow climb towards enterprise acceptance

Despite the current focus on smartwatches, the wearable form factor represents a broad spectrum of devices, particularly in the enterprise, where less consumer-oriented devices like wrist- and hip-mounted computers and ring-mounted scanners are more the norm, as well as head-mounted displays like that of Vuzix and the much-maligned Google Glass. However, the majority of the deployments for these wearables have primarily been for relatively niche applications that have traditionally revolved around data collection-intensive environments like the warehouse, where the benefits of hands-free devices are more immediately tangible. However, with enterprise mobility reaching even the most conservative of companies, interest in wearables is spreading across industry verticals. Notable examples include the healthcare industry, as well as logistics and field services where the benefits of being hands-free are becoming increasingly apparent. While many of these developing use cases have been for head-mounted displays like Google Glass (particularly in logistics and warehousing for vision-based picking applications), it has made enterprises take a more creative approach to equipping their mobile workforce and the benefits to be gained. Data from VDC Research shows that a growing number of industries are evaluating wearables, although the lack of a clear ROI remains one of the primary barriers to adoption.

Finding the killer app

The primary challenge in bringing wearables like the smartwatch into the enterprise is that, unlike other mobile devices, the wearable is not typically a standalone product, but is tethered to another device – usually a smartphone. By acting as a complementary device, it brings up the question as to whether it is truly needed in line of business applications. However, the ISV and development community is bullish on the notion, as evidenced by the growing number of solutions that incorporate smartwatches: last month Good Technology became the first enterprise mobility management (EMM) vendor to support wearables with Good Work, while Salesforce launched Salesforce Wear in the summer of last year as a platform to encourage app development for the form factor. Many of the emerging use cases revolve around hands free notification and ID functionality through NFC and BLE, although EMM vendors like Good Technology see potential for data security through the use of the device in dual-factor authentication and access control. Nevertheless, many of the gains are viewed as incremental and complementary rather than revolutionary, as the introduction of the smartphone and tablet into the workplace has set the bar high.

 Awaiting the tipping point

With thought leaders across the board predicting the explosion of wearables and IoT both in consumer and enterprise markets, it is only a matter of time before wearables as a whole gain more widespread acceptance and, once again, all eyes are on Apple. If the company succeeds as it has in the past in capturing the imagination of the public and the developer community alike, this month’s launch will likely prove the much-anticipated and talked about tipping point for wearables. This, in turn, will bring forth new layers of complexity regarding BYOD and security policies to an already complex environment, especially as the vast majority of devices will be personally-owned for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, April’s launch will determine whether wearables can finally make the transition from consumer trend to enterprise-ready. 

(Research and contributions from Judy Zhang)

Does the New SecuTABLET Foreshadow BlackBerry's Transition to Software?

Following a turbulent year which saw sizable contractions and the launch of two new devices, the BlackBerry Passport and the Classic, the company once again made headlines this week with the announcement of its first foray in years into the tablet market after the failure of the ill-fated PlayBook with the unveiling of the SecuTABLET, a high-security tablet based on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5. Presented in collaboration with IBM at CeBIT 2015, the device is squarely focused on security, with the public sector and security-minded enterprises as its target market. Aiming for the highest levels of security, the device, which has been designed with European governments in mind, is currently undergoing certification for a German VS-NfD (classified – for official use only) rating, making it one of the most secure tablets to enter the market in an era where concerns around data leakage and breaches continue to grow. The tablet marks a notable departure for BlackBerry, as this represents the first device from the company that does not feature proprietary hardware or OS. 

A powerful enterprise partnership

As noted in BlackBerry’s press release, a study from IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) found that 63% of public authorities want mobile access to mission critical apps, but the level of security required through legally mandated restrictions towards data privacy present a considerable obstacle. As a result, there is a dearth of solutions that fit a “government-grade” level of security demanded by the public sector. To address the gap, BlackBerry has worked to form a partnership with some of the best-in-class solutions providers to create a turn-key, secure tablet solution that meets stringent security requirements. The device features recent acquisition SecuSmart’s security architecture and secure SD card and driver, in addition to the trusted execution environment protections from Samsung’s KNOX platform, and is complemented by Apperian’s secure app store and app-wrapping capabilities. The latter’s app management, which has proven itself to be best-in-class and speaks to the firm’s strength in the MAM category. Meanwhile, IBM brings considerable industry-specific expertise to the table, as well as the ability to bring mobile solutions to a wide array of both regional and vertical environments.

Embracing the niche

Despite a high price point of €2,250 (US$2,380), the move represents a smart and positive development for BlackBerry, which has struggled to maintain enterprise relevance in the face of steep declines in market share against Android and iOS devices. By teaming with Samsung, not only can BlackBerry offload the hardware requirements in bringing the SecuTABLET to market, it also can take advantage of a considerably larger user and application base than would be available to its own proprietary OS, whose market share has dwindled to single digits in recent years. If anything, this strategy holds significantly more potential as it allows BlackBerry to pivot away from its hardware roots While it is still too early to tell, preliminary guidance reveal tepid adoption rates of its smartphones that mean any attempts to regain general market share will be an uphill struggle at best. By focusing on the niche that is government and high-security enterprise, BlackBerry can leverage its differentiation through high-level security to its advantage, especially with its acquisition of Secusmart. However, while there have been competing solutions from the likes of Motorola’s AME 2000 and Apple, through its collaborations with KoolSpan and its own Root of Trust to provide similar hardware-based solutions, BlackBerry’s traditional strength in the public sector and the sophistication of the SecuTABLET solution will offer a meaningful point of differentiation to help it withstand the competition.

With Eric Klein, Managing Director

The EMM Pivot is Upon us #MWC15 EMM Recap

Mobile first EMM vendors know they must evolve — and they are ...

As one might expect, the high profile handset refreshes from Samsung (Galaxy S6), HTC (M9) and LG (G Flex 2) and the notable (and well timed) acquisition announcements (NXP acquiring Freescale, HP acquiring Aruba Networks, and Mitel's acquisition of Mavenir) garnered the lion share of the post MWC media coverage. However, there was something different at MWC this year. There was a "new partner" sitting in on several of the briefings we had at MWC.

Google sent several senior executives to Barcelona (Sundar Pichai, Rajen Sheth, and Andrew Toy were the most visible) — either Rajen or Andrew was present (and actively participating) at several of the meetings we attended at MWC — the exception? Our meeting with Good Technology. Why? Read on.

Android for Work is Legit and KNOX is Not Dead (yet)

Every prominent enterprise mobility vendor has moved quickly to completely integrate with the Android for Work platform.

Good is negotiating with Google and is likely to join the other prominent vendors listed above who were quick to announce their integration with the Android for Work Platform — however, it appears as though Good (and SOTI) have forged strong(er) partnerships with Samsung. Both seem to have gone further than their peers in integrating with the company's KNOX platform (which is not just a container). While all of the vendors listed above have been working with Samsung's KNOX platform; after speaking with several Samsung executives, the level of integration with KNOX is varied. Good and SOTI have seen traction from their partnership with Samsung and have figured out creative ways to go to market (one sure fire method is to give away the device — while not sustainable, it appears as though Samsung is willing to do so). Here's what my colleague David Krebs wrote in his MWC Event Recap post:

In summary, we see both Good and SOTI benefiting by working with both Google and Samsung. Both vendors have a sizable footprint in both government and financial service industries. We expect that Good will formalize its partnership with Google soon.

ACE to the Rescue

The launch of App Configuration for Enterprise (or ACE) was timed for MWC. Five prominent enterprise mobility vendors (AirWatch by VMware, Box, Cisco, Workday and Xamarin) have collaborated on the standard which aims to simplify and scale the deployment of apps in the enterprise. The benefits are clear and straightforward (see below).

There is no question that enterprises are challenged by app provisioning and distribution. Considering that multiple versions of the same app (built with different SDKs) is now normal, the standards-based platform agnostic approach (thanks to the ability to seamlessly invoke both the latest iOS and Android   APIs) will be welcome. However, the consortia needs to get other important vendors on board (Citrix, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP come to mind). 

EMM Evolution

My next report (scheduled for May) will focus on the evolution of EMM. I'm seeing some interesting (and consistent) thinking from prominent EMM vendors on how they intend to evolve and differentiate their platforms moving forward. Key initiatives that are in development and on most road maps include:

• Split billing
• Unified Endpoint Management
• Enhanced email clients
• Architecture enhancements
• UX / Console optimization

I'm actively scheduling briefings to discuss the evolution of EMM and the pivot that I anticipate. If we didn't meet at MWC, I'd welcome to opportunity to discuss this topic with you in the next few weeks.

Kudos to GSMA for hosting another top-notch event. See you at MWC 2016!