Gartner Symposium: Mobile increasingly driving the IT bus

One interesting undercurrent here at the Gartner IT Symposium this week is the extent to which mobile computing is forcing everyone to adapt. The need to accommodate the consumer's choice of end point mobile computing devices, each with its own application infrastructure and network, is increasingly being taken as a given. Just try pulling that iPad out of the users' hands.

To IT this may look like the tail is wagging the dog, but the emphasis is on how to adapt, not how to keep such devices out.

Mobile is the new PC

Case in point: At a session discussion debating Macs in the enterprise yesterday, many good arguments were made for not allowing in Macs in any shape or form. But the whole discussion was overshadowed by the  inevitability of it. iPads, for example, are forcing themselves into the business by sheer numbers -- especially among executives and IT management -- and user demand for access to key apps from those platforms. Consider: During one session I counted 21 iPads in quick scan of a room of about 200 people. Seventy five percent of the IT professionals in the room were in favor of incorporating Macs into the enterprise IT infrastructure.

PC, Smartphone and Tablet too

Users are carrying the iPad as a third device. The conventional wisdom was that people would never carry an iPad or other tablet computer because it can't replace a smart phone or a laptop and no one would carry three devices. It's looking like that's not true. iPad users here appear to be carrying all three - including another Computerworld reporter covering the conference. Gartner now envisions a world where users' lives are associated with many different devices, a world where those devices will disappear into functional "objects" (think e-book reader).

Rise of the synch ecosystem: Multiple devices drive need for app and data orchestration

An acute need is emerging for app and data orchestration between all of these computing devices. What all of those objects you use need is portable, universal access to your information. "If you're working on four or five different machines you can't remember which has what," says Cearley. And you shouldn't have to.

I couldn't agree more.

In fact, the anytime, anywhere, any device password management programs I reviewed this week are a harbinger of that evolution. These tools orchestrate our life between devices, allowing access to continuously synchronized password data that can be delivered to your iPad, the MacBook at home, the Windows machines at work and the Android phone in your pocket.

Development for mobile first, PC second

In the developer world it's clear that there's a race under way to develop business-centric and custom, business-specific mobile apps for smart phones and tablets. What's new, in Gartner's view, is that the emphasis in software development is rapidly moving away from the Windows PC in favor of a mobile-first posture.

People like the UI-specific experience of devices such as the iPad or iPhone for consuming apps and content. As a result, says analyst David Cearley, "The design and focal point for systems in the future is mobile." The development of apps that take full advantage of the unique interface of mobile devices will be "the key design point, with desktops being a companion or sub-device."

Unified communication rolls in mobile

Finally, Gartner is predicting that the mobile phone will become the primary communication device for businesses in the next few years, displacing the desktop handset as the center of the user's telecom universe. To get there IT organizations will need to beef up in-building access through techniques such as dual-mode phones that switch voice traffic over the corporate Wi-Fi network -- which of course must be optimized to handle voice traffic -- and integration with the corporate or VoIP PBX call management system.

Voice over 3G,which is just starting to roll out, will become another option for managing call costs by pushing cellular voice traffic over less expensive bandwidth usually reserved for data. Unfortunately, quality of service will have to evolve before call quality will be consistent enough for business use. Also on the horizon: Integrating mobile devices into internal unified communications systems for seamless access to voice mail, e-mail, IM etc.