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The search for a strategy on heterogeneous client computing

There was a time not long ago when the end-user’s client device was the most predictable component of the IT infrastructure.

Whether it was a desktop or a laptop, it was certain to be running Windows and would most likely be configured according to the IT department’s precise specifications. Even when employees started using BlackBerrys in the mid-2000s, it was still simple enough for the IT department to exert centralised control over the devices and how they were used.

Today, however, the client-computing environment is poised to become the most complex, diverse and changeable element of business infrastructure.

The most obvious blame figure is Apple. The runaway success of the iPhone and the iPad mean that many users have powerful devices of their own, with interfaces they actually enjoy using.

When their Android-based copycats are also taken into consideration, IT departments now have two new form factors and two new operating systems to contend with that barely existed five years ago.

This would not be so much of an issue were it not for the fact that it is often the CEO who is demanding access to corporate systems from his or her personal device. For some organisations, the sophistication of employees’ personal devices opens up a tempting possibility – to stop providing a work-mandated computer altogether. When users are frustrated by their ageing work laptops and enthralled by their home devices, ‘bring your own device’ seems an obvious solution, especially when the money to refresh the end-user computing estate is hard to come by.

But this introduces yet more complexity. Securing company data becomes a matter of either enforcing security policies on employee devices or creating safe environments through which data can be accessed securely.

Meanwhile, the growing sophistication, portability and energy performance of devices in general is enabling a more mobile workforce. That can lead to productivity enhancements, operational efficiencies and improved customer performance, but also means that the network through which employees access corporate systems is unpredictable.

As discussed below, there are technological methods available that can address all of these issues individually. The dilemma for CIOs is that most of these solutions will take a few years to deliver a return on investment. And with the rate of change in the end-user client environment being what it is, who knows what employees will be working on in a few years’ time?

What is needed is a long-term strategy for client computing. Various providers are proposing alternatives, but most are incomplete. It seems that this is something that CIOs are going to have to figure out for themselves.

Device management

The most visible issue in client computing is the proliferation of mobile devices.

According to IT market researcher IDC, global shipments of smart mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) overtook PC shipments last year, and by the end of 2011 will outsell PCs by over 120 million devices. That is now translating into the workplace.

Two to three years ago, the average mobile worker carried two devices with them. Today, that number is up to four, IDC finds.

Meanwhile, the number of mobile workers itself is increasing. In Western Europe, IDC says, around 50% of the workforce is mobile, and that figure is growing by 5% to 10% each year.

How are businesses addressing this? Some organisations are embracing the diversity of client devices, says IDC’s research director for enterprise mobile strategies, Nicholas McQuire.

“Organisations that are ahead of the curve are moving away from the traditional path of highly standardised technology and blanket policies towards more mixed devices and more varied policy frameworks,” he says. “But the vast majority of businesses are in reaction mode.”

The most common reaction is to allow users to access email via the Microsoft Exchange server, and use Exchange as the management console. “You can do some very simple management through Exchange,” says McQuire. “This is the most popular approach today, but it is also far and away the most risky. You can’t manage devices with any granularity, you don’t have the ability to selectively wipe corporate data and you can’t monitor the device in real time.”

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