Why it’s not too late for IT to embrace mobile (without compromising the infrastructure)

Recent research from Gartner suggests that IT operations who are considering shifting emphasis to mobile are already too late, citing the fact that the installed base of mobile PCs and smartphones sailed past the number of desktop PCs as far back as 2010. 

Looking forward, the creation of mobile apps will outnumber those being built for traditional PCs by a factor of four in the next few years, with Gartner warning those who haven’t already made the move that they will be left behind.

While it is true that mobile is an important platform for all IT and non-IT businesses and departments to consider, saying it is too late is an exaggeration and it also infers that desktops are old news not worthy of our time. 

There are several reasons to challenge this thinking.  Firstly, the research doesn’t specify whether the apps being built are business tools or consumer fodder such as games and novelty utilities.  Yes, mobile apps are changing the way that people interact with technology, but the mainstay of business will still be word processors, email programmes and collaboration tools.  There may be millions of apps, but the majority of them have little purpose in business.  Desktops, and the software they deliver, are still the mainstay of business and therefore abandoning or reducing our focus on supporting these technologies in favour of mobile makes no practical sense.

IT departments are understandably wary of mobile because user owned devices being introduced into work environments play havoc with the control mechanisms they have worked hard to build.  Yet it is possible to let staff use their own kit in a professional capacity without seriously compromising security or integrity of the business IT estate, but it will only be achieved with a level headed view of the situation.

Telling an IT department that it is too late to embrace mobile simply feeds this fear and will cause it lock down even further.  Doing so would mean that users and IT departments alike would miss out on the opportunity that mobile presents for improving access and usability of business technology.  Let’s stop the hyperbole and work out how we can support the traditional technology mainstays while developing ways to introduce the latest kit.