IBM Gears Up to Enable the Mobile Enterprise

Building on investments in mobile application development, security, compliance, analytics and cloud computing technologies, IBM is gearing up to launch a major new framework that’s intended to allow organizations to deploy an entire mobile enterprise.

IBM’s aim for the technology, scheduled to be rolled out at the Mobile World Congress 2013 conference in Barcelona, Spain (Feb. 25-28), is to provide a comprehensive end-to-end framework for managing mobile computing in the enterprise, said John Ponzo, CTO for IBM Mobile Research.

Previously, IBM launched the IBM Mobile Foundation,  which combined its Worklight application development environment, Tivoli endpoint security management software and Cast Iron System cloud connector software. According to Ponzo, the next goal is to build on those technologies by making a more turnkey platform available—one that includes analytics applications and application testing services in the cloud, along with deployment models and patterns developed by the internal IBM IT department.

“All of that will come along with more granular control over security,” Ponzo said.

In addition, IBM intends to deliver a lightweight business process management framework that has been specifically optimized for mobile computing environments, Ponzo said. As part of that effort, IBM services teams will take that framework to market in a way that’s optimized for specific vertical industries.

The end goal is to reduce the amount of systems integration work that is currently required to create a truly mobile enterprise, said Ponzo. For IBM channel partners, that should translate into being able to deliver business value faster around a unified set of backend processes that can serve mobile computing devices, regardless of whether they are owned by the company or the employee.

Despite the proliferation of mobile computing devices in the enterprise, the usage of those devices beyond access files and email is still fairly nascent. IBM expects the mobile enterprise to provide a framework that will enable custom applications and business processes to be developed and the entire business to become more agile.

Most IT organizations currently take a piecemeal approach to mobile computing that takes a long time to deploy and winds up being more expensive to manage. By taking a more comprehensive approach to managing mobile computing, IBM plans to help business partners sell upgrades to systems and software that span virtually the entire enterprise.