What is mobile-first, and how can enterprises be mobile-first? Enterprises that realise that mobile devices are primary tools for employees to get work done are referred to as mobile-first enterprises.
Enterprises are slowly but surely opening up to the idea of their employees using mobile devices for work. A research study by Juniper even suggests that there will be one billion employee-owned devices by 2018. It is imperative that enterprises start preparing their monitoring capabilities to withstand the barrage of mobile devices that will come in to their environment over the next few years.
While the mobile transition is happening, another transition which enterprises are making is the move to a hybrid cloud model where their applications are either hosted on-premise, a private data center, or in a public data center, based on the nature of the application. It is important to note that there is a synergy between the mobile and cloud trends. The cloud enabled employees to go mobile, and played a large role in ushering the BYOD policies in enterprises around the world.
With this heady mix of custom applications hosted on-premise (or in private datacenters) and public data centers, applications management becomes an arduous task. However, with a combination of applications performance management tools and mobile device management tools, this situation can be handled with ease.
Here are some ways in which applications performance management can help enterprises deal with the influx of mobile devices:
a) Mobile Device Management (MDM) & Mobile Application Management (MAM)
Enterprises will need to have a good mobile device management solution to ensure an effective implementation of their BYOD policies. Enterprises that have sensitive data can opt for an MAM solution to wrap apps that have access to corporate data and ensure their data is protected.
b) Real User Monitoring of Enterprise Applications
Business critical applications like ERP, email, CRM etc., have traditionally been built for the desktops. With the advent of mobile devices in to enterprises, these applications are now also being access through mobile devices. In some cases, a mobile version of the application has become more critical than the traditional desktop version. It is important to monitor the end user experience and optimise the application as and when necessary.
c) Governance
Enterprises must have clear governance processes for applications. Guidelines on how an application is published, distributed, and updated must be set.
d) Application Catalogue
Building an “Enterprise App Store” will make publishing and distribution of apps, through an MDM solution, more streamlined. All enterprise applications downloaded from this app catalogue can be wrapped with a MAM solution, ensuring data security.
