Enter Client Computing 2.0 where almost every single vector in client computing is changing. Gone are the days of enterprises building Windows applications in Visual Basic or .Net. Many enterprises are embracing web applications, either hosted internally or in a SaaS delivery model. This trend is expected to continue at the expense of local thick-client applications. However, for the foreseeable future, Windows applications will coexist with web applications in many enterprises, so the underlying infrastructure needs to be flexible enough to support both traditional as well as emerging devices.

On the mobile phone application use is changing dramatically. In the past corporate mobile phones were synonymous with accessing email and calendar anytime anywhere. While this paradigm led to productivity increases, enterprises are realizing that more applications could and must, be mobilized to give employees the freedom to realize the true potential of mobile devices. Employees are buying cool and capable PCs, phones and other emerging devices for personal use and actually preferring to use them instead of the corporate-issued device. Consequently, Macs, iPhones, Android phones and iPads are now entering the enterprise and the demand to support them is increasing.

As multiple devices enter the enterprise, each one brings yet another operating system into the enterprise. In Client Computing 1.0 era, most employees were allocated just one device - either a desktop or a laptop. Today many employees are also given a mobile phone and tomorrow, employees may also carry a tablet. The expectation is that they will use these devices interchangeably to access the applications they need at any given point in the day. They may use the desktop at work, cell phone during long, boring meetings, laptop/ tablet during the train ride to/from work.

Consequently, CIOs are faced with having to manage a very complex and heterogeneous environment that includes different device types, operating systems, processor architectures, sizes and shapes. As if the above matrix is not complicated enough, the additional dimension is the ownership of the device - corporate-owned vs. employee-owned. The one thing that has not changed is the need to comply with various government requirements (FISMA, SOX, HIPAA, etc.). The old management paradigms of managing the device just do not work in such a diverse environment. Going forward, solutions must offer Application Access - providing the right set of applications to users irrespective of the device; Security - securing enterprise applications, services and data; and, Scalability - heterogeneous management of multiple different end points.

The challenges are many but also is the potential for increases in effeciency. The opportunity is how to merge the security and reliability of the 1.0 generation with the flexibility, mobility and choice of the 2.0 generation. You can read more about VMware's approach to these Emerging Devices at my blog.

Posted: December 14, 2010

Going into 2011, it's clear that two of the most important use cases in public-sector computing are ideally served by the strengths of the cloud. First, there are tasks that fall to the government requiring rapid deployment in response to legislative initiatives. Economic stimulus programs, for example in the area of health information technology, have demanded implementation schedules far more rapid than those traditionally associated with massive government programs -- and the cloud has delivered. Second, there are scenarios such as disaster relief in which the government must be among (or even in charge of) first responders, with unpredictable but absolutely urgent timing of service delivery into inconvenient locations -- and again, the cloud has delivered, with multi-agency coordination in the field and with peak-load capacity for financial and logistic support in situations such as the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Regardless of urgency, whether driven by man or by nature, there can be no slackening of attention to security or robustness in such situations: indeed, it is unfortunately true that low barriers to entry into the cloud have facilitated fraud as well as enabling real aid. Fortunately, the apparatus of the cloud is increasingly being recognized as enabling rigorous security practices, and affording access to top-tier security and governance tools, that once were beyond the reach of resource-starved agencies in public-sector and non-profit domains.

With recent high-profile commitments to a "cloud first" strategy in the U.S. federal sector, we may hope that 2011 will bring increasingly confident use of the power of the cloud to serve the public interest.

For further information, please contact Peter Coffee at pcoffee@salesforce.com or see his blog at http://cloudblog.salesforce.com/

Posted: December 17, 2010

Think of the ability to have any information you need, at any time, in any place. Examples of the potential range from the more mundane like being able to read reports on the go in a secure, ubiquitous and fast manner or being able to have your favorite music list follow you around while you change devices from home to the car to your office.

At the other end of the spectrum are examples of law enforcement situational awareness. It is possible to provide details that can help tactical operations come to a safe and successful conclusion. The stuff you see on the television series 24 is beginning to be possible. We can now use smart phones to collect and/or show surveillance video in a very unobtrusive way. Such uses do not require specialized equipment, but can take advantage of relatively inexpensive off the shelf mobile devices.

Think of the situation where an undercover operation is taking place and the undercover operative is dealing with some unknown people. Video or still photographs can be taken unobtrusively and this information can be sent to the office for analysis against a known database, or even better, can be used with crawlers to check social media sites in order to identify the individuals. This gathered information can then be sent back to the operative. Again, the device in the hands of the operative is just an off-the-shelf mobile device.

Mobility and the Cloud go nicely together. They can very much complement each other and extend their capabilities. Many of the examples I have used could be achieved without using The Cloud or off the shelf mobile devices, however, these two technologies make the possibilities even greater and should be explored.

For further information, please contact Gregg (Skip) Bailey at: gbailey@deloitte.com

Posted: December 22, 2010

The integration of new cloud-based mobile capabilities will explode in the next several years. As mobile devices – both smart phones and tablets – replace the laptop as the tool of choice, the need for government to leverage the cloud for applications, storage and processing is going to become essential. As an example, Google Apps and Microsoft Office® 365 (Beta) provide cloud-based office applications that can be accessed from a browser over a network. But, this is just a start. "In the past corporate mobile phones were synonymous with accessing email and calendar anytime anywhere," writes Srinivas Krishnamurti. He adds, "While this paradigm led to productivity increases, enterprises are realizing that more applications could and must, be mobilized to give employees the freedom to realize the true potential of mobile devices."

Mobile applications can enable significant operations and business process advantages if the new capabilities are aligned with the goals of the organization and mission assurance is considered. Before government can fully realize the value of cloud-based mobile computing, network availability, service reliability and security are non-trivial factors that must be addressed. As Peter Coffee cautions, "There can be no slackening of attention to security or robustness…" Further, as these devices are expected to be more capable, their complexity will continue to increase. The reliability and availability of the mobile platform, coupled with the network and cloud services will determine the ability of citizen or government users to interact with government systems, especially when the need is time critical. If the network, device, or cloud service is unavailable, due to lack of security, robustness, or other factors, the user may not be able to access essential capabilities. Given these risks, Federal IT leadership should consider all of these implications in planning their enterprise, and develop an appropriate IT architecture, policies and procedures to mitigate these factors, depending on the intended use of these technologies.

By the end of 2011, 1 in 2 Americans will have a smartphone. As these devices become pervasive and more applications become embedded within the cloud, more government business and more capabilities will be accomplished with the combination of these technologies. As such, cloud computing and mobile technologies coupled with appropriate risk mitigations will provide government and citizen users with more capability, increased mobility and, ultimately, enable them to leverage government services more effectively, regardless of where they are and what means of access they may have at their disposal.

Posted: January 7, 2011