Real Talk: It’s Time to Get Hands on with Enterprise Mobility

First published on CloudBlogs on Sep, 09 2014
For months I’ve been writing a lot on the topic of Enterprise Mobility and emphasizing that – no matter what you call it (COIT, BYOD, BYO, etc.) – this emerging segment of the IT industry is not a trend; it’s mainstream. Not only is it not a trend, it’s now a reality of daily life in IT departments in every corner of the globe. Early in my ongoing Success with Enterprise Mobility blog series I said that the rise of Enterprise Mobility is one of the most defining transformations the IT industry has ever encountered. This outlook might have come with some Microsoft bias, but consider the data points from an independent Forrester Research, Inc. report titled, Brief: The Future of Mobile Device Management , (June 6, 2014) that dives into this exact topic:

• Today, 40% of North American and European firms say implementing a BYOD program is a high or critical priority for them in the next 12 months.
• Forty-two percent of North American and European information workers now use three or more devices for work.

If enterprise mobility isn’t already a critical topic for your organization, it probably will be by tomorrow. Rather than feel overwhelmed or unsure where to start gearing up, we have put together some great resources to get you up to speed. The goal of these resources is really simple: Explain Microsoft’s vision and execution for Enterprise Mobility to the IT community – and explain how this vision and execution impacts their day-to-day job (and how to use these insights to do that job even better). In our ongoing communication with the IT industry, we’ve heard you loud and clear:

• You want to dig deeper and get more technical .
• You want information about what are the actual steps you need to take in order to capitalize on our Enterprise Mobility vision.
• You want to know how to implement these steps .

Recently, a technical evangelist here at Microsoft ( Simon May , who calls himself an “Enterprise Device Infrastructuralist” – say that 5 times fast) started a great blog series that dives into the deeply technical details of Enterprise Mobility. I recommend checking out his first post: 5 quick wins for implementing Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility Vision (+learn how to do it!) . Simon covers the practical things that immediately provide value to your organization, e.g. “Know your users devices with Workplace Join” or “Be better than passwords with MFA.” I also recommend taking a look at how to make our enterprise mobility solutions work for you . Check out the “ Modernize your device infrastructure ” learning path to learn how modernizing your device infrastructure lays the foundation to empower your users to work from whatever device they choose, while providing consistent access to (and protection of) corporate data. Also explore the new enterprise mobility capabilities of Windows 8.1 that make recovery, security and identity management of Windows and non-Windows platforms easier. Then test drive the software through evaluations and virtual hands-on labs. As you use these resources, don’t hesitate to get in touch and share your feedback.