11 Predictions for Enterprise Mobility
Enterprise mobility is poised to take some big leaps forward in the coming months thanks to devices, networks, partnerships and more.
November 2, 2018
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The proliferation of smart speakers in the home, notably Amazon’s Echo line and the Google Assistant, are going to work their way more into the workplace as users find conversational computing more reliable and it helps boost individual productivity.
Already, conferencing providers and hardware OEMs this year partnered with Amazon to integrate Alexa for Business into their respective offerings.
Advances to address concerns about the potential security risks posed by these devices are also going to subside, O’Donnell said. Voice assistants will start to be able to do more without necessarily always going to the network, and therefore not initially sending all data into the cloud, he said.
“People are starting to build these custom mobile apps that have some level of AI capability in them.” O’Donnell said.
As more organizations shift to modern device and PC management, supporting Macs will become easier. Apple is poised to gain incrementally more share. And as more Macs are updated to the latest version of the Macintosh operating system, Mojave, it will allow more iOS apps to run on those systems.
A revamped Mac App Store is poised to allow a growing number of iOS apps natively on macOS, the company said earlier this year.
Chromebooks will also gain more share, and not just in education.
“You’re seeing Google hardware partners putting out really nice really high-performance Chrome OS devices at very low prices,” Tomlin said. “They’ve already made significant inroads in the middle market.”
A number of OEMs have launched new Chromebooks targeted at commercial and enterprise organizations, including Dell, whose fall lineup included its first premium Chrome OS laptop.
The major carriers have started seeding their 5G networks this year and they will start to become ready for pilots in early 2019, primarily in larger markets.
“It’s going to be limited, but a lot of businesses obviously are in large cities, and that’s where you’re going to typically see these first 5G deployments,” O “Donnell said. “Enterprise may be more interested in 5G than consumer for that reason.”
During 2018, standards were finalized and carriers started rolling out infrastructure. AT&T kicked off the year announcing that it would roll out the first 5G mobile networks in 12 markets by year’s end, following the completion of the 3GPP new radio (NR) standard, paving the way for chipset and device suppliers to begin development.
AT&T last month claimed it made the world’s first wireless 5G data transfer over millimeter wave connecting to standards-based mobile test equipment in Waco, Texas. Building on that, AT&T last week said it had completed the first millimeter wave 5G browsing session with a 3GPP NR standards-based device on a 5G mobile network.
“This proves we are well on our way to the promise of mobile 5G for consumers,” said AT&T Mobility and Entertainment president David Christopher.
The carrier said it’s on pace to complete its promised 12 city rollout this year and 19 cities in early 2019. For its part, AT&T’s lead rival, Verizon, this month said its 5G network has gone live in Sacramento, Houston, Los Angeles and Indianapolis.
T-Mobile, which is in the process of rolling out its 5G service in 30 cities, has said it won’t become available until 2019. Meanwhile, the “un-carrier” hopes to complete its announced $26 billion merger with Sprint, which has also planned its 5G service to start appearing in 2019.
As Microsoft sets to pull the plug on mainstream support for Windows 7, organizations will rush to get millions of systems up-to-date with replaced or upgraded PCs running Windows 10. That in turn, promises to bring the abovementioned shift to modern device and systems management, which will broaden the implementation of capabilities such as conditional access, context-aware security and multifactor authentication.
“A third of the desktops are still running Windows 7 and those have to be switched out next year,” O’Donnell said.
The Windows desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) market might come to life in 2019. Microsoft will test the limits of how much life a cloud-based DaaS has when it rolls out its new Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD). Microsoft launched its Azure-based WVD at Microsoft’s Ignite conference a month ago. The new DaaS service will challenge Amazon WorkSpaces and VMware Workspace One.
Analysts also have suggested it’s a blow to Citrix, a longtime Microsoft partner, which has launched its Workspace Cloud powered by Azure. Steve Blacklock, Citrix’s VP of global strategic alliances, said Microsoft’s new WVD will further boost demand for its own Workspace Cloud and virtual desktop services.
“Citrix is focused on what we like to call what did the ‘intelligent workspace,’ which is different than just virtual desktops or virtual apps,” Blacklock said. “Microsoft talked about virtual desktops, but we’re focusing on the complete secure digital workspace not just virtualization.”
When Microsoft released Windows 10 more than three years ago, the operating system was rearchitected to enable administrators to configure, deploy and manage devices based on the OS with the Azure-based Intune management tool. Last year, the company teamed with key OEM providers to launch AutoPilot, which automatically maps new Windows 10 devices to the resources they require.
At the late September Microsoft Ignite conference, the company extended Windows AutoPilot beyond specific PCs to a broader set of OEM-based PCs. As MSPs and customers upgrade Windows 7 PCs to Windows 10, they can use the OS deployment capabilities of Config Manager integrated into the task wizard of Intune, Brad Anderson, Microsoft’s corporate VP for enterprise mobility and security business, told attendees at Ignite.
“It just loads all the information into AutoPilot and that’s how we are extending the capabilities of AutoPilot to all of your hardware,” Anderson said.
For partners, that’s a much simpler approach than the traditional model of creating a Windows image, configuring it and managing it.
Insight’s Tomlin sees this unification trend continuing “because they’re forcing it to happen through their licensing structures and financial engineering,” he said. “This is why it’s great to be Microsoft.”
Dell, HP and Lenovo, the leading suppliers of PCs, are emphasizing their higher-end mobile PCs with a renewed emphasis on refreshed mobile workstation lines. Among them are Dell’s Precision 7730 and the HP ZBook Studio. Lenovo just introduced its new P1 Workstation.
“We’re going to focus more on workstations,” said Matthew Zielinski, president of Lenovo’s North American business and leader of its PC and smart-devices organization. “We have in the past, and that has really been paying off in the last year or two.”
We have long heard the promise of no more passwords. Microsoft is once again saying the beginning of the end of password-based authentication will arrive in early 2019, thanks to the recent completion of the Fast Online Identity 2.0 specs.
“There will be no reason why you should need to use a password with any Microsoft connected application ever again,” said Alex Simmons, VP of program management within Microsoft’s identity technology group.
Support for FIDO 2.0 in the latest release of Windows Hello for Business and third-party multifactor authentication tools from the likes of new YubiKeys from Yubico promise to facilitate this transition. Another key factor is Microsoft’s newest update to its Authenticator app, which replaces the password by implementing multifactor authentication to sign in to multiple apps by combining a fingerprint, facial recognition or a PIN. A setting can require that a user is logged only if their phone is nearby (via Bluetooth or NFC connection). Microsoft claims that MFA can reduce the risk of a password compromise by 99.9 percent.
Google, also a founding FIDO supporter, is a bullish proponent of the demise of passwords. The company’s recently launched Titan Security Key is a USB key that supporst Bluetooth and NFC. Google also recently launched MFA access to G Suite and Google Cloud with the new key.
Mobile-app stores are now a decade old and soon may not be the only way to run native apps on a device, or even in Windows. Progressive web apps (PWA) use standards to run in the native device experience without having to access it from an app store. Instead it’s hosted on one’s own web server, where developers can deliver updates rather than via different app stores.
By using the Service Worker standard – effectively a JavaScript process that runs separate from a browser thread – PWAs can implement push notifications, allow offline access, background refreshing and other native capabilities without requiring platform-specific code, according to a high-level description by Microsoft’s Windows 10 and Edge browser development team.
In addition to removing platform-specific dependencies, PWAs are still installable, searchable, secure and responsive to form factors and screen sizes. Installed on Windows 10 as Universal Windows Platform apps, PWAs offer technical benefits over running web apps in a browser. For example, PWAs run in a standalone window with independent processes, such as lower overhead and an isolated cache and support for offline and background processes.
PWAs are equally compelling to Google, which just added support for PWAs running in Windows with its latest Chrome 70 browser, released in mid-October. Linux and Mac support are slated for Chrome 72, according to Google developer advocate Pete LePage. The June release of Chrome 67 introduced PWAs to Chromebooks, which install and function like desktop apps.
Rumors that Microsoft might re-enter the phone market have endured since Microsoft exited it. But the rumors persist, ranging from reports that it will appear in late 2019, to don’t hold your breath. Microsoft has never admitted the existence of such hardware, supposedly a foldable device that may be the size of a phone but more intended to function as a multi-screen PC. It’s hard to say whether Microsoft will roll out the device, based on a new operating system that’s code-named Andromeda. But it is a good bet that the rumors will, pardon the pun, continue to surface in 2019.
Rumors that Microsoft might re-enter the phone market have endured since Microsoft exited it. But the rumors persist, ranging from reports that it will appear in late 2019, to don’t hold your breath. Microsoft has never admitted the existence of such hardware, supposedly a foldable device that may be the size of a phone but more intended to function as a multi-screen PC. It’s hard to say whether Microsoft will roll out the device, based on a new operating system that’s code-named Andromeda. But it is a good bet that the rumors will, pardon the pun, continue to surface in 2019.
The way PCs and mobile devices are configured and managed has come together with modern tools and processes — and the trend will likely accelerate.
Unified management will gain momentum on the enterprise-mobility agenda, coinciding with the various technologies that will appear or start to proliferate. Among them are the long-awaited, but very formative rollout of 5G wireless networks; broader implementations of biometric and multifactor authentication fueled by a higher priority on improving device and remote network security; and broader AI and speech-recognition capabilities on devices ranging from traditional PCs to smart speakers.
As these technologies continue to surface, the case for a common approach to managing and securing any device or service that has access to the enterprise will be harder to dispute either technically or economically.
Along those lines, Microsoft has played an influential role over the past year in pressing customers to shift from the current model of distinct PC and mobile-device configuration and management to a unified approach. That alignment is possible because Windows 10 is built to support modern mobile-device enrollment and security.
Windows 10 migration continues to grow, and with Microsoft’s end of mainstream support for Windows 7 slightly more than a year away, that momentum is expected to peak in 2019. The continued Windows 10 migration and underlying management APIs shared with ecosystem partners including Citrix, Jamf, MobileIron and VMware, are making this transition all but inevitable.
While unifying connected and mobile-device management and security will be a key focus in the months ahead, the type of mobile devices will continue to diversify with the growing footprint of Macs and Chromebooks used in the workplace.
“There is a growing realization that having multiple endpoint asset classes and having a tool for each of those asset classes is probably not an ideal scenario anymore,” said Evan Tomlin, director of solution architecture at Insight, the large systems reseller and service provider
Tomlin, who oversees the company’s Insight Managed Mobility solutions practice for its Connected Workforce program, said that will help fuel the growth of Macs in enterprises.
“We’re very bullish on this,” he said. “Apple has seen that can take significant share from the PC market to the enterprise, which is truthfully one of their last major growth opportunities in the space and the endpoint space.”
As Macs and even Chromebooks start to gain share in the workplace, Tomlin added that doesn’t spell the demise of Windows. Tomlin said Windows 10 upgrades are fueling PC growth.
“While we’ve got more hybrid scenarios, we’ve got clearly still a robust laptop market,” he said. “Even though a lot of people think we’re in a post-PC area, we’re actually not.”
Meanwhile, expanded presence of AI and use of speech recognition supported the latest crop of PCs and devices, ranging from phones to smart speakers, such as Amazon’s expanding line of Echo devices and the Google Assistant.
“A lot of the semiconductor vendors – obviously ARM – and then the people who license ARM like Qualcomm and others, have made a big deal of the additional AI silicon that they’ve put in there,” said Bob O’Donnell, president and chief analyst with TECHnalysis Research. “I think you’re going to see a lot of people start to do some mobile AI apps.”
After years of hype over 5G wireless networks, they will start to emerge in 2019, though on a small scale, likely in limited markets for testing and evaluation purposes.
“The networks are going to come to fruition next year,” said Mary Beth Hall, director of wireless strategy at Panasonic, which expects to see some early pilots with its partner, AT&T, next year.
“They’re creating the chip sets and the modules now, and we can start doing our testing and antenna testing and things like that,” Hall added. “It’s going to be all-new product, all-new testing requirements, all-new network requirements; there’s a lot to do for 5G. It’s a very different technology.”
Amazon, Google and Microsoft will take the lead in extending their AI capabilities. Expect Amazon to become especially aggressive in this space, building on this year’s Alexa for Business announcement. The company last week opened a path for device-maker partners with the launch of its new Alexa Voice Service (AVS), allowing them to integrate their various offerings with Alexa for Business. AVS will let customers manage third-party devices as shared devices and private skills from the Alexa for Business console.
The latest updates from Google AI include such releases as AutoML Natural Language, AutoML Translation and Duplex, the search giant’s latest technology that’s designed to enable natural-language conversations to complete specific tasks. Microsoft has made similar efforts with the latest updates to its Bot Framework and Cortana Conversational AI, improving natural language on web apps, Microsoft Teams, Skype and its own Cortana interface, as well as third-party platforms including Facebook Messenger and Slack.
In this slide show, numerous experts in enterprise mobility provide 11 advances they anticipate will impact the mobile devices, services and management landscape in the months ahead.
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