PC and Mobile Device management on Collision Course

 The collision of PC and mobile device management over the next seven years will change everything about managing these devices, according to renowned industry experts, Gartner.

Convergence of management frameworks

Currently enterprises are supporting two radically different management architectures - one for PCs and another for smartphones.

Over the longer term, the mobile and PC management frameworks will converge into a Unified Endpoint Management model, Gartner stated in its report "Managing PCs, Smartphones and Tablets and the Future Ahead."

By 2020 unified endpoint management will be demanded

Gartner makes two key strategic assumptions in reaching their findings:

• By 2020, smartphone security and management architectures will dominate the endpoint computing environment, while traditional PC image management will decline except on dedicated appliance-style devices.
• By 2020, unified endpoint management systems will be requested by 40% of enterprises to manage the variety of endpoint devices across at least six different operating system ecosystems.

Gartner point to Microsoft and Apple who are unifying aspects of the PC, tablet and smartphone platforms. Both vendors have added the ability to use enterprise mobility management (EMM) tools to manage their PC platforms.

VoicePlus keeps abreast of latest developments with Gartner

VoicePlus Managing Director, Michael Giffney, last week attended the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Queensland to hear keynote speakers from around the world provide insights into industry trends and new directions.

"As a company, VoicePlus makes a significant investment to ensure that we remain abreast of the very latest development trends in this space. It is key to the consultative expertise that we provide to our customers. We are constantly thinking and developing for tomorrow, next year and in five years' time.

The convergence of PC and mobile device management is now inevitable says Giffney. 

"Already, in a very embryonic sense we have begun moving down this path with our partners, Telstra and Coca-Cola Amatil.

"Just in the past few months, we have expanded from providing Coca-Cola Amatil with mobile phone fleet management to also management of a fleet of laptops and tablets. It's symbolic of where both enterprise business and mobility management providers like VoicePlus will move to."

"To position VoicePlus for future growth we have already up-skilled our internal Help Desk personnel to provide level 1 technical support for MDM and we have employed a specialist infrastructure technician to provide leadership in this area." 

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