IBM announced new additions to the Mobility Services portfolio of solutions to help enterprise clients see maximum business benefit leveraging mobile. The offerings include a new analytics solution that gives global businesses the tools needed to fine tune their mobile initiatives. In addition IBM is announcing a new desktop-as-a-service offering that brings all the capabilities of a powerful desktop to mobile devices in a pre-packaged subscription service delivered on the IBM Cloud.
As mobile adoption continues, businesses must obtain a clear line of sight into the performance of their infrastructure, from the individual device through to the server and applications. The challenge will grow dramatically as this device explosion continues—according to Juniper Research, over 1 billion employee-owned smartphones and tablets will be in use throughout enterprises by 2018.
With these new Mobile Services offerings, IBM removes the burden of integrating, maintaining and supporting this new infrastructure while addressing concerns around major IT issues such as security and compliance. As a result, companies can focus on rolling out applications to thousands of mobile devices in a matter of hours rather than months while giving global workforces quick and secure access to these applications as well as their data and personalized desktops.
“The trifecta of mobile, cloud and analytics services are turning the mobile device into a powerful business tool that lets companies quickly use them for sales, marketing and employee productivity,” said Rich Esposito, general manager, Mobility Services, IBM. “Now these businesses need the tools that let them manage the performance of their applications to make sure they deliver impactful results from any individual’s device of choice.”
Mobile Infrastructure Analytics
IBM Mobile Infrastructure Analytics Services go beyond traditional point mobile application performance management solutions by delivering a true end-to-end view into a business’s entire mobile environment. Using analytics applications delivered through a software-as-a-service model (SaaS), businesses gain instant visibility into how their mobile applications are being used, whether by their own employees or customers. The service then delivers insights into any issues that may exist with a business’s infrastructure, which could affect the performance of mobile devices.
This new mobile analytics service uses an analytics correlation engine designed by IBM Research to examine data collected from mobile devices. The tool presents the data through a dashboard so businesses can easily spot problems with mobile device performance and quickly improve the user experience to avoid costly failed transactions, user abandonment, poor app store rankings and negative feedback.
The service also leverages Tealeaf CX Mobile, which manages the customer experience on mobile devices. Now businesses can see how their employees and customers are using their smart phones and quickly resolve problems, including issues around touch-screen use such as pinching, zooming, scrolling and device rotation. Businesses can also build and manage an early warning system to detect mobile user problems and provide proactive awareness into failures, usability issues or other obstacles.
Mobile Virtualization – Desktop-as-a-Service
IBM also announced that it is enhancing its mobile virtualization services offering with a new desktop-as-a-service that delivers all the benefits of virtualization for end points with a pre-packaged subscription service that includes the Citrix Workspace Suite and is delivered on cloud infrastructure from SoftLayer, an IBM company. The service, which is the latest addition to its Mobile Services portfolio, extends the full capabilities of virtualization from the traditional PC to the mobile device, turning an enterprise’s “on the go” workforce into its greatest asset.
For example, with this new offering a member of a sales team who is en route to a meeting can click an icon on his tablet screen, instantly transforming it into a personal work desktop. The seller can then access a large sales presentation that is saved on the desktop, update it with information specific to the client and then launch a company chat application to confirm the specific details with a colleague in real time.
These new services are part of IBM's continued commitment to bringing together mobile, cloud and analytics in order to fully enable today’s global workers. This combination combines IBM’s mobile and analytics expertise with its investments in cloud. IBM’s commitment to cloud includes a $1.2B investment to expand its global cloud footprint to 40 data centers in every major market, $1B to create a cloud development platform as well as the creation of an IBM Cloud marketplace to enable business, IT and development professionals to tap into enterprise cloud services from IBM and its growing cloud ecosystem.
