Unified-View (Part 2)

By Art Rosenberg

Back | (Part 2)

The “Chips” Are Down For Enterprise Mobile Application Control
Motorola made a big splash at CTIA with its announcement of a revolutionary chip technology to support “mobile extreme convergence” (MXC) architecture for “smart” wireless devices. Key aspects of this development include:

• Converges the hardware required for both communication and service applications to facilitate the efficient interaction between the two;

• Separates communication functions to keep the applications environment separate and independent within the handheld device;  

• Provides on-board security for all forms of information delivery; and

• The system chips are extremely small, thereby reducing costs and the size requirements of the “smart” devices that communicate wirelessly.

We see this kind of chip development as providing a practical solution for enterprise organizations that want to securely control mobile access to proprietary business applications and enterprise data, but not necessarily interfere with individual communications activities on the same devices that individual users prefer to use.

It’s simple! The enterprise will control the application chips that they issue and install into the end user’s device, including the ability to automatically destroy its content if lost or stolen. This will match and interoperate with the personal SIM chips used by cell phones today that provide the intelligence for identifying the individual user for “communication applications.”  So, the enterprise can take responsibility for providing equivalent “business application” chips for enterprise application mobile software.

Such enterprise control may also be applied to communications like e-mail and instant messaging that can include enterprise information attachments that need to be secured. Given that communication devices should be able to serve both personal and business needs, the question then is how to manage all contacts to insure that enterprise activity is controllable and secure. Would a VPN approach be useful?

What Do You Think?
Do you agree that presence/availability/modality management applies to all forms of personal contact? How should instant messaging be integrated into enterprise communications management? Where should the enterprise draw the line on its responsibilities for supporting converged communication devices? How will such responsibilities mesh comfortably with those of the wireless carriers who can supply both the network transport services as well as the handheld devices? How do you see those carriers dealing with Wi-Fi services for the larger enterprises vs. the SMB market? Will enterprise organizations have to rethink their policies for allowing personal contacts vs. business contacts using all forms of converged communication services and devices?

Let us know your thoughts by sending your comments to [email protected]. You can also participate in our forums.

ENTERPRISE SURVEY OF CONVERGED COMMUNICATIONS MIGRATION
The Unified-View has started a comprehensive survey initiative to track the migration of enterprise organizations towards converged communications management. The ongoing survey is accessible through CommWeb and is open to enterprise technology managers responsible for current telephone or messaging communications and their migration to a converged network infrastructure and multi-modal communication devices.

Participants in this study will be rewarded with up-to-date perspective reports of how enterprise organizations are selectively migrating from their current communication technologies to support various user needs for enterprise-wide mobility and multi-modal communications.

To participate in this survey now, go to: http://cmp.inquisiteasp.com/surveys/e42wy8 and be sure to type in “TMC” as your Group Identification Code on the first page.

New White Paper
Don’t forget to pull down your free copy of our latest white paper, “Migrating to Enterprise-wide Communications: The Branch Office Dilemma,” on enterprise-wide communication applications in a distributed enterprise. Simply go to our Web site – www.unified-view.com, fill out the form, and download the paper.

Art Rosenberg and David Zimmer are veterans of the computer and communications industry and formed The Unified-View to provide strategic consulting to technology and service providers, as well as to enterprise organizations, in migrating towards converged wired and wireless unified communications. They focus on practical user requirements, implementation issues, and new benefits of multi-modal communication technologies for individual end users, both as consumers and as members of enterprise working groups. The latter includes identifying new responsibilities for enterprise communications management to support changing operational usage needs most cost-effectively.

Considered to be objective industry thought leaders, Art Rosenberg and David Zimmer have been publishing their highly-acclaimed syndicated column on unified messaging and unified communications for over four years to a worldwide audience of consultancies, technology providers, service providers, and enterprise technology managers. Both principals are popular speakers at leading technology conferences and organized the first programs in the industry focused on the subject of unified messaging/communications. The Unified-View's website (www.unified-view.com) is also considered to be a leading source for information on the evolution of unified communications.

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