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The iPad and IT Admin frenzy that started few weeks back is now turning into “enterprise fashion” trend. Every day you hear from an enterprise service provider adding support to their service through iPad. Particularly, apps designed to help IT Admins and manager take care of their infrastructure through iPad is very attractive for me. Whether Apple intended iPad to be an enterprise device or not, it has taken off in the enterprise much like how cloud computing has gained traction (in a bottoms up way). Today managed service provider NaviSite mad an announcement about their iPad app.
Why iPad is attractive to enterprise users
There are many reasons for iPad to be an attractive candidate. The chief among them are
- It’s form factor. The size of iPad is ideal for sales and support teams, knowledge workers, management and, more importantly, IT
- There is an enthusiasm among the employees for devices like iPad and other smartphones. Usually, any introduction of newer tools will have resistance from employees. However, in the case of iPad, they are more enthusiastic than anytime in the past for newer tools
- Cost is also very attractive
- With AT&T and Verizon jumping in to sell iPad to enterprises, it is more palatable to those who make buying decisions
- It is a more attractive device to carry while travelling than a Laptop. It is also cost efficient compared to some high level Laptops. Very handy for those employees who are always on the move. Now they can move around “while sitting on their desks”
- the enterprise agility offered by such devices
There are many applications that makes iPad more palatable to IT admins. For example, LogMeIn Ignition lets employees log into their work PCs and work from anywhere using their iPad. Sentry App from MobileIron lets the IT managers keep tab on mobile devices accessing the enterprise network. My posts in the last two weeks listed out many other IT centric apps which will gain traction in the enterprise in the coming years.
NaviSite, provider of hosting and cloud services for the enterprise, today announced the iPad support for the NaviCloud AppCenter management console. With this app, IT can easily provision and manage NaviCloud resources using an iPad from anywhere at any time. As I mentioned above, a portable window into its cloud operations makes IT organizations agile. NaviSite AppCenter is an innovative, web-based console for creating, managing, and monitoring resources on the NaviCloud platform. Its intuitive interface enables customers to configure, modify, decommission, and even clone resources through drop-down menus and simple point-and-click operations. Just imagine your IT manager keeping a tab on the enterprise infrastructure from 30,000 ft above.
iPad is that miracle device for enterprises, Huh?
However, concerns about security and lock-in prevails among the enterprise managers. Even though IT is used to access from devices like Laptop and Home PCs, mobile devices add another layer of complexity and the security issues surrounding this layer are something which they need to understand and find a way to mitigate. But things are moving fast and we could see large scale adoption in the next 3-5 years. Another major concern is the idea of lock-in. The closed nature of iOS devices is a big put off for the enterprises. If Apple is serious about leveraging the enterprise market, they need to open up big time. Unless that happens, I see Android platform outperforming iOS devices inside the enterprise market in the long run. On a side note, Apple should also make purchasing of apps easier for the enterprises. Expecting enterprises to buy one app at a time is outright silly.
We are still in the early days of enterprise adoption of smartphones and tablets. In fact, we are still in the early days of smartphone devices itself. We can expect more innovation on these devices completely altering the way we work as individuals as well as organizations. Keep an eye on this field and we are just beginning to have ‘fun’.
Related articles
- iPad In Enterprise: IT Folks Can Have One Too (cloudave.com)
- iPad In The Enterprise Meme Continued (cloudave.com)
- iPad revisited: OK, NOW is it compelling? (blogs.chron.com)
- Corporate users begin to make the iPad connection (ft.com)
- Apple in the enterprise: Do the extra costs justify the value? (zdnet.com)
- NaviSite to Release Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2010 Results (eon.businesswire.com)
- NaviSite CEO Arthur P. Becker Steps Down and is Succeeded by R. Brooks Borcherding (eon.businesswire.com)
- New CEO for NaviSite (xconomy.com)
- AT&T Pitches iPad To Business Customers (informationweek.com)
The usual debate about app vs. browser applies here. It seems like cloud companies would be better off ensuring that their browser console works well on all the browsers, particularly Safari. Unlike on an iPhone or other smartphone, the real estate is not nearly as limited on an iPad so the browser console would work fine for most purposes.
Dave, +1