Infosys-Oracle Blog

Future Outlook and Challenges

Network- At current technology levels existing WiFi networks (802.11 a/b/g) and cellular carrier service cannot provide the same data transfer speeds as a conventional wired office intranet. They can efficiently transmit low volume data like email and calendar information but are not very efficient for transmitting high volume data like intense applications and video.

Wireless LANs need to be upgraded to the 802.11 n standard, which was finally approved by IEEE in October 2009, and is capable of delivering throughput speeds up to 300 Mbps. Cellular carrier services need to provide 4G services like mobile WiMAX which can provide two to four times the performance of 3G networks today and can scale up to ten times the performance in the future.

Devices- Tablet PCs are now moving in to fill in the gap that currently exists between Smart Phones /PDAs and WiFi enabled Laptops / Netbooks. Apple's latest entrant into this space the iPad is sure to heat up the competition and as we saw in the mp3 player market truly shake it up. It is expected to provide a boost to Application development which could then enable new mobile enterprise applications to be developed.

Security- While existing security solutions like IPSec or SSL VPN are adequate for providing security and authentication for remote access and WLAN they are not designed to manage switching between multiple networks. They provide open network access to all access devices which could become a security risk in the case of Smart Phones. A mobile SSL VPN ensures mobile devices are only allowed access based on user identity and security of the device. It provides security and control to access only authorized and relevant applications with no direct network connection.

Applications- Role specific and network aware applications like CRM, SFA, Workflow Approvals and Decision Making Systems need to be deployed to improve productivity and expand coverage. These applications need to look and work the same irrespective of the platform over which they are accessed. Using enterprise applications which are developed by major software vendors can mitigate this since these applications are developed to work for a variety of major platforms and devices like the Blackberry and iPhone. Mobile middleware is another piece which can be used to perform the interaction between the user device and any custom developed server based application.

Mobile carriers also need to ensure that their networks provide adequate mobile data security for the packets of mobile data being transported. Wireless networking vendors are providing newer security products which enable mobile service providers to perform inspection of the GPRS tunneling protocol and deep mobile data packet inspection.

Conclusion

In conclusion organizations that harness the capability of the smart mobile devices and deploy enterprise applications and tools over the mobile network will gain an "unfair competitive advantage". These organizations have already seen significant gains in employee productivity and business coverage. They are also seeing some tangible monetary gains like increased revenue, lower operation costs and intangibles like enhanced customer satisfaction and differentiated market offering.

For more details on the Future Outlook and Challenges in providing Enterprise Mobility, please see the article "Mobilizing the Enterprise- Strategies and Technologies to Drive Organizational Readiness" in FINsights.