Last week I’ve read an article from Gartner which does not let me go without sharing and writing some additional thoughts from myself. It’s about the shift to personal clouds. I totally agree with this view as I am living this today.
Believing in Gartner predictions Client computing is shifting in the next two years (2014) from a personal computer market to a personal cloud approach much more independent from the used device. Gartner’s megatrends which are forcing the personal cloud era are:
1. Consumerization — You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
2. Virtualization — Changing How the Game Is Played
3. “App-ification” — From Applications to Apps
4. The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
5. The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want
As an end user today I am working with seven devices depending on my own or company property. Currently I am using my a corporate smartphone, tablet and Laptop PC, but I also use my own consumer devices to get my work done. A deeper look into those megatrends shows how the role of IT needs to change to a hybrid approach. The big challenge for IT is that there is a need for new management tools to take care of the hybrid cloud. IT needs to realize that the single controlled access to one device is over. The world for IT administrators is getting more complex depending on the underlying technology and vendor. Those technologies provide more value for end users to be more productive, but are more expensive for IT to run the business. I really recommend David K. Johnsons webcast at BrightTALK about “Client virtualization will fail without a hybrid approach”.
On the other hand companies need to define their management style how they will handle mobile devices.
1. Control-oriented
2. Choice-oriented
3. Innovation-oriented
4. Hands-off
This is definitely a decision between end users flexibility and trust versus company security and data protection. With consumerization of IT and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concepts intellectual property might become an issue for companies, because they are not infinite complementary. From an end users perspective flexibility and user’s choice has priority one. From an company’s perspective data security rules.
Don’t agree? Missing something? Let me know your thoughts.
Patrick Sauerwein | @virtual_patrick 