The Seamless Enterprise

Watch for the enterprise to drive mobile cloud computing adoption for the short term, before consumer applications help that side of the business catch up and surpass business usage. That was one of the take-aways from a December 10 ABI Research webinar on mobile cloud computing.

The graphic that ABI put forth was a bit unclear, but it looked like businesses would be calling the shots when it comes to the mobile cloud until maybe later 2010 or early 2011 … after which the consumers really join in, with both of them powering a health growth in the mobile cloud over the longer term.

Several points stood out in the webinar:
• Awareness is clearly building for using the cloud for general computing and data storage needs, as well as enterprise application access.
• There is a growing interest in enterprise applications delivered by web browser, which fits nicely with mobile cloud computing.
• The cloud becomes important because mobile devices lack the processing power to operate as full-powered computing tools. But if the processing is done in the cloud, the device is an excellent means of connecting to the cloud and taking advantage of the remote operations.

The ABI folks noted that there are barriers, among them the bandwidth limitations of some networks and concerns about intermittent connectivity, especially as the user is in motion. There’s also the small screen size offered by most mobile devices.

Of course, if you’re using the right network and the right mobile device, those barriers aren’t such a big deal. As I wrote in a post about the Palm Pre and the Cloud back in July, the device is not so much a new way to interface with the cloud, but is an extension of the cloud.  It derives its user experience from the cloud itself, not from an application resident on the device. I likened it to having a server in your pocket … and made the point that so much of the Palm Pre’s capabilities stem from the “heavy lifting” of information management being done by the network itself.

The webinar offered advice for the whole mobile cloud computing universe … enterprises, consumers, operators, and IT equipment makers … and emphasized the need to get developers working on the applications that will really drive this technology approach. In the meantime ABI recommended, and I second the motion, that enterprises really need to be looking at leveraging the cloud to offload their non-strategic IT work, and as a means of developing their mobile workforce.

-Steve

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Tags: ABI Research, cloud computing, mobile cloud computing, Palm Pre

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 10:55 am and is filed under Mobility & Devices, Network Management & Security, cloud computing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.