Summary Bullets:
- MobileCon (née CTIA Wireless) 2012 is nearly half over, and while it is by far the smallest Fall CTIA show yet, the major vendors in the enterprise mobility ecosystem showed up to demo their wares, hold informational sessions, and talk to the analyst community. There has even been a sprinkling of announcements.
- While the fate of the show itself may be in doubt, the growth of both the overall enterprise mobility market and the M2M segment in particular is apparent. The usual suspects (operators, mobile device management/mobile application management vendors, smartphone manufacturers, m-health providers, UC enablers, mobile application ISVs, systems integrators, and M2M aggregators and technology suppliers) are all here. So, what were some of the major announcement from Day One?
Sierra Wireless announced a major new partner, Amazon Web Services, which will be providing Sierra customers with its cloud-based infrastructure on which to run their M2M applications. The Sierra AirVantage cloud (which provides asset, data, and device management) has been integrated with Amazon’s service to provide a joint offer for building and deploying M2M applications with no IT infrastructure costs.
AT&T made three announcements on Day One. First, IBM and AT&T are combining AT&T virtual private networking and IBM SmartCloud Enterprise+ cloud capabilities with technology from AT&T Labs to create a new, fast, and highly secure shared cloud service targeted to Fortune 1000 companies which are deploying cloud solutions that demand high levels of security and availability. Second, McGladrey LLP, the nation’s fifth largest assurance, tax, and accounting firm, has hired AT&T’s MSS professional services team to get 6,500 new tablets up and running, train service desk professionals, and set up a mobile device management (MDM) solution – in less than two months. Third, American Automobile Association (AAA) members that are also AT&T subscribers now have access to the AAA FindMe roadside assistance service at no additional charge. AAA’s FindMe service is enabled through AT&T Location Information Services, which provides businesses with application programming interfaces (APIs) designed to collect and manage geographic location information.
Verizon announced three new services under its Enterprise Mobility as a Service banner:
- Verizon Secure Workspace employs Divide by Enterproid to separate and secure professional data on both corporate-issued and employee-owned devices. The secure workspace can be managed by an IT organization while maintaining user privacy by creating a firewall between business and personal data.
- New Mobile Device Management has been extended to smartphones and tablets, so they can be locked, wiped, and controlled remotely by a central administrator. Previously, this feature was only available on laptop and desktop computers.
- Expanded Wi-Fi Offload Access enables subscribers to connect to more than 500,000 hotspots in 90 countries. In addition, customers can configure and deploy corporate WiFi directories across their devices to make more effective use of corporate mobile data networks when employees are at their own offices or campuses.
Some common themes relating to these announcements were: the continued convergence of cloud and mobility, advancements (and carrier wins) in managed mobility and professional services, and the maturation of M2M solutions and enablers by platform providers and other members of the rather eclectic M2M ecosystem. A more comprehensive description of MobileCon will be forthcoming next week from Current Analysis to discuss the rest of the show, keynotes, key themes, and other announcements. Still, Day One was surprisingly full of relevant news for the enterprise mobility/M2M markets.
IT Connection 