Cloud based services for enterprise mobility

Cloud computing is proliferating as is mobility. The mobile platform, as well as the Cloud have revolutionized the way enterprises work, bringing about tremendous changes in the way data is created, moved, stored and retrieved. The traditional self-contained, on-site networks are going away and a new infrastructure, that serves a mix of on-site and Cloud, will rule in the near future.

A recent report by Forrester predicts that the global cloud computing market is going to increase from about USD 41 billion in 2011 to USD 241 billion in 2020.

The mobile cloud  computing phenomenon meanwhile has been spurred by factors such as arrival of HTML 5, a critical breakthrough that  can address the issues of poor  connectivity, the proliferation of high speed networks, and the fast growth of the Cloud itself.

By marrying the power of cloud computing with the freedom and functionality of mobile devices, enterprises are gaining access to a wide range of benefits. The Cloud enables enterprises to access key information on mobile devices, and reach  out to their customers in an efficient way. Other advantages include increased reliability, burstability, real-time updates, scalability, employee empowerment, etc.

However, companies utilizing the Cloud for their enterprise mobility initiatives, need to overcome some challenges, such as deploying numerous heterogeneous devices on the Cloud, securing limited capability devices as well as efficient and secure application distribution. Organizations must deploy Best Practices including proactive security monitoring, central mobility management, and distribution of approved applications, to address these issues.

In the ideal model for Cloud based enterprise mobility, there is an ecosystem based on collaboration, where every enterprise accesses its core services through the Cloud. The enterprises have an option to create their own Cloud, or host their services on public Clouds, based on a pay-per-use model.
Apart from the enterprise Cloud component for core proprietary services, organizations can pick and choose the desired services from a range of other Cloud service providers.  In case of SMBs, the enterprise Cloud may not exist at all. In fact, the services can be availed from the specialized Cloud service providers to achieve Cloud-based enterprise mobility.

Today, when it comes to mobility solutions, developers have the option of going for a thin client, thick client or a hybrid approach.  The Hybrid Application Development Approach, leverages the best of the thick and thin client approaches.  In this approach, developers have an option of using HTML5 and JavaScript, to develop touch optimized applications that support client side rendering and offline data caching.  As this approach allows developers to utilize web technologies, it enables easy portability across all mobile platforms and is cost effective.

Impetus Technologies recommends the Cloud Powered Smart Hybrid Approach for cost-effective and highly maintainable enterprise mobility.  In this approach, there is no need to download ‘thick clients’ to the handsets. Rather, it is better to go for ‘thin clients’ or ‘hybrid clients,’  where the major share of processing happens on the Cloud.

Impetus has implemented the Smart Hybrid App Approach, ‘the Instant Mobilizer,’ which is a unique, cost-effective and easily maintainable solution that offers developers a range of strategic components to choose from, to create customized solutions. It offers a smart visuals repository organizer that helps to optimally organize the UI for all platforms and devices and helps in improving native and custom applications’ feature usage from the Smart Hybrid app.

Clearly, cloud computing and enterprise mobility are emerging as key industry trends. According to Impetus, enterprise mobile apps and app stores, together with Cloud-based enterprise mobility, will drive the future.