By Cat Yong
Gartner had recently reported how enterprise app stores would be implemented by 25% of enterprises by 2017. EITN queried further and what resulted are the below responses from three Gartner execs, namely research vice presidents, Brian Prentice, Ian Finley and Philip Redman.
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| Brian Prentice |
EITN: In what type of organisations/industries/verticals does Gartner see enterprise app stores thriving or having a natural fit with?
• Interest in enterprise app stores has risen in the past year as offerings from vendors have grown and smartphone deployment continues in most enterprises.
• Enterprise app stores are not focused on the mobile workforce but can be seen thriving in scientific research organisations and those with a predominantly mobile distributed workforces, most of which are headquartered in Europe, Middle East and Africa or North America.
• Enterprise app stores come from many areas where enterprise mobile technology software is already in the enterprise and continue to evolve. Most Tier one Mobile Device Management (MDM) vendors have some application management capabilities; two examples include MobileIron and AirWatch.
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| Ian Finley |
EITN: What is the current state of adoption of enterprise app stores? Will there be any overlap in the apps that enterprise app stores have with consumer app stores like Apple’s or Android’s?
• Enterprises already have numerous choices for downloading software onto PCs, but most of them do not include support for smartphones and tablets.
• Enterprises are beginning to formalise more standard support for these devices, and are looking for a way to manage mobile application provision in the next year, especially as they develop their own in-house apps to extend more complex data to these devices.
• Even though, most apps on business devices are third-party apps downloaded from an application store (such as the Apple App Store and Google Play), overlapping will not be an issue with the emergence of enterprise specific app stores. Even today, with commercial consumer apps, we can see that the same apps are available on the different platforms and app stores such as the iOS and Android and Windows marketplace. Rather than create an overlap they give users the option to use the same apps from across different devices and platforms.
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| Philip Redman |
• Enterprises are also increasing the number of apps they develop for their users, improving the functionalities of existing apps, as well as adding more support for enterprise software vendors (e.g., SAP and Oracle). Therefore, the need for a way to provision and support mobile apps is growing.
• In addition, mobile application development platform and pure-play enterprise app store vendors offer app store capabilities as a complementary tool to Mobile Development Management solutions.
EITN: Do you foresee consumer app stores being impacted by enterprise stores?
• We do not foresee consumer app stores being impacted by enterprise stores in entirety.
• Private enterprise app stores are still in the early adopter phase and technologies and strategies are still developing.
• Choice is a fundamental feature of an app store. But there is no choice where there is nothing to choose from. Therefore, enterprise app stores require a dramatic increase in the app options available to internal stakeholders
• However, app store offerings are fast-changing and interest in enterprise app stores has risen in the past year. This can be attributed to the increase in offerings from vendors complemented by the continuing rise in smartphone and tablet adoption amongst employees.
• The continued heightened interest of consumer app stores for mobile apps has generated a lot of corporate interest in the technology, mostly to support not only the various mobile platforms that are emerging in their organisations, but also with the potential to extend it to PCs and change the way enterprise applications are delivered.
• For some organisations, this is a response to the pressures of consumerisation of IT and the blurring of lines between professional and personal lives which point new device management models, such as bring your own (BYO) PC or mobile device. For others, app stores are seen as a way to support goals such as increased innovation, especially when hosting company-designed mobile applications.
EITN: What would the business model for these enterprise app stores be like? A) Is there expectation to monetise? B) Will the enterprise app store implementation be spearheaded by the MDM solution that is chosen or the organisation’s IT?
• Under the business model, application leaders need to assess the realistic need for immediate adoption of enterprise app stores. There will be limitations as to what can be supported based on platform vendors, so there is a need to keep enterprise app stores simple at first, until application availability grows.
• Application leaders should implement an enterprise app store as a component of an organisation’s application strategy, rather than an infrastructure strategy, to ensure an adequate supply of applications.
• Consider any enterprise app store investment made this year to be tactical. Enterprise app store options are evolving rapidly and the solutions available today may have a short usable life.
• In many cases, app stores are included as part of an MDM tool at no additional cost. In addition, mobile application development platform and pure-play enterprise app store vendors offer app store capabilities as a complementary tool to MDM solutions. The development of mobile apps and the support of MDM will drive most enterprise app store implementations during the next 12 to 18 months.
• Gartner believes that, because much of this functionality resides in MDM at a similar price range, and most IT organisations are adopting these tools (replacing the need for lines of business to do so), this will drive the majority of the market toward MDM instead of the emerging MAM offerings that focus only on the application side of mobility management.
EITN: Do you have any comments about Windows InTune which has MDM function ’embedded’ into it?
• Windows InTune will support Windows Phone 8, along with Windows RT, but System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) will not directly support either.
• InTune will eventually support all platforms, albeit differently, according to the file architecture (open or sandboxed). However, SCCM is not slated to expand its support and is unlikely to in the foreseeable future.
• So, for at least the time being, most enterprises will have to use a combination of Microsoft management tools if they do not go the third-party MDM route for smartphones (and most tablet) platforms.
EITN: Are Blackberry/Microsoft the only mobile OS providers that have MDM solutions? Do you foresee Android and Apple playing catch up in this area?
• Yes, however, Apple has made an effort to improve security and to cooperate with the mobile device management (MDM) market with its B2B App store. Although, resource restrictions, such as limits on background processing and a consumer-driven model, limit the protections obtainable from third-party tools.
• Resource limitations imposed by Apple prevent third-party MDM tools from offering the full range of defense features that can be implemented on devices like the BlackBerry or workstations, and policy parity cannot be assumed with other enterprise platforms. Administrative discipline will be required to avoid policy gaps.
• There are newer technologies emerging, many from MDM and MAM vendors that support the distribution and support of applications as part of an enterprise mobility management system. For example, Enterproid’s Divide is a tool that partitions Android devices into separate uncontrolled (personal) and managed (corporate) personas. Enterprises can manage and secure the corporate persona, but can leave the personal side to end users. This includes the ability to push applications to the corporate side and protect corporate data.
• Other companies, like Nukona and OpenPeak, can support both Android and Apple iOS in this manner, except that, instead of individual personas, apps are identified as either corporate or personal, and live side-by-side on the springboard.
