As demand for solutions and consulting services that can help companies take over control and management of the influx of mobile devices appear to be hitting the sky in Australia, an IT analyst firm has predicted that MDM software will become fastest growing IT market in the world.
According to an IT firm, Gartner, the worldwide market for mobile device management (MDM) software will be the fastest-growing IT market, rising to more than $US500 million ($478 million) this year, as the technology becomes an ”essential” IT practice.
Though, the MDM is only a fraction of the over $50 billion domestic enterprise IT market; the KPMG’s IT Advisory national managing partner Ian Hancock there has been a ten-fold increase for MDM-related advisory services in Australia in the past six months.
”Most large Australian organizations are evaluating or re-evaluating their mobility policies/practices and deploying MDM tools to enhance controls over the mobility devices connected to their corporate networks,” Mr Hancock said. ”Many customers are evaluating, selecting and implementing systems to manage connectivity, deploy productivity applications, and securely extend functionality onto mobile devices. The majority of our clients are managing this capability internally and on-premises.”
There are currently more than 100 organizations worldwide offering MDM; and many of them operate in Australia either directly or through channel partners and the cloud-based options are likely to increase.
According to Hancock, the current preference for on-premises solutions over cloud is attributed to several factors. Some of the factors he mentioned include the following: the level of maturity of cloud offerings and reference user cases in Australia; and difficulty in creating an interface between the cloud and existing identity and access management tools and processes. Hancock also pointed to to ”typical cloud contracting concerns” around service level agreements, business resilience, disaster recovery controls, unknown exit costs and contract complexity.
In the same vein, the head of Accenture’s mobility practice in Australia, John Cassidy, also described a similar experience with initial demand driven by on-premises solution but added that interest was rising for the cloud.
John Cassidy said that; ”At Accenture, we’re seeing universal demand for mobile device management solutions – both cloud and on-premise – from all sectors of the market.”
Flexibility is the key in MDM offering as organizations are faced with the headache of keeping up with fast-changing mobile technology developments, threats and skills requirements. ”Many organizations find it challenging to get a business case approved for the initial capital outlay involved in doing this via an on-premise solution, so more recently, we have seen a higher demand for cloud-based MDM solutions,” Mr Cassidy said.
