Asia-Pacific - Mobile business is the top issue for IT professions according to IDC

[it wire] Every IT manager we talk to tells us that dealing with the diversity and infiltration of smartphones and tablets is a growing issue. So, it's no surprise that mobile business is the number one IT issue occupying the minds of IT professionals in Asia/Pacific, according to IDC's CIO Innovation Survey 2011.

The definition of "enterprise mobility" is evolving according to IDC. For some it's about mobile email or Unified Communications. For others, it's about extending the office into the mobile environment.

Tim Dillon, IDC's Associate Vice President for Asia/Pacific End-User and Mobility Research says "Organizations that continue to take enterprise mobility for granted will be swept aside in the new environment. Today, we’re seeing what we could call a ‘perfect storm’ created by the evolution of different areas of technology combining to fundamentally, and drastically change how organizations can use enterprise mobility to support business goals and strategies. New access networks, new devices, new mobile operating systems, applications, platforms and delivery models come together to create true and all-embracing enterprise mobility. If previous IT turning points for industry have been the move from mainframes to desktops and the growth of Internet, then new mobile devices and applications will constitute the next seismic shift."

Experienced IT leaders know that, despite the constant change cycle of hardware specifications, fundamental platform shifts are relatively rare in technology. In the 1980s there was the move from centralised to distributed computing as the mainframe gave way to the PC. However, for the next 20 years or so, much of the progress followed Moore's Law with almost every component of the computer becoming faster, bigger or cheaper. It wasn't until the middle of 2010s when mobile communications and device portability combined to create a new computing platform - one that many IT managers are struggling to deal with.

IDC will be holding their Asia/Pacific Mobile Everything Conferences in Melbourne (August 10) and Sydney (August 24) where they will explore the changing landscape for devices where tablets, iPads and large-screen smartphones can now run almost fully functional versions of all enterprise software and services. Smarter and more capable mobile operating systems are providing the market with platforms to mobilize new applications, extending the functionality of virtually all IT systems to the mobile devices.

Dillon adds, "ICT is evolving on multiple fronts to create a true revolution in mobility. As enterprise applications become mobile, the boundaries of the enterprise become extended and blurred. With the constant evolution in devices and applications that tap into the core enterprise systems, all systems become increasingly vulnerable to the acts of negligent users and malicious attacks - Companies will need to pair 'pervasive mobility' with 'ubiquitous security'."

IDC says mobility is biggest ICT issue in Asia Pac