” . . . the new business features in iOS 7 will have a significant impact on MDM/MAM vendors, and Cortado is in the vanguard with support for Apple’s upcoming mobile OS refresh.”
So suggests a recent ZDNet article by Charles McLellan that details how Cortado’s Corporate Server 7 will play nice with Apple’s upcoming iOS upgrade. This speaks to an eagerness by the enterprise mobility community to appease Apple, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (of course, you need to play nice with the 900-pound gorillas of enterprise mobility), but let’s have a quick history lesson.
When it comes to Apple’s propensity to fulfill enterprise requirements, they really, in a word, don’t. They support them just enough to keep checking the box. In a BYOD world where not everyone is praying at the altar of iOS, what works best in our cross-platform reality is true independence. Even if iOS was adequately fulfilling enterprise mobility needs, this is an approach that works better for MDM, rather than MAM. And that further reinforces the emerging reality that while we are in many ways BYOD, we are also becoming BYOA — all the more reason to insist on robust MAM that accounts for the entire lifecycle of enterprise mobility, from development to deployment, security to statistical analysis.
Ultimately, this evolution is no different than any emergent technology. We’ve all experienced a similar culture of evolution with, for example, cloud — or even the inception of the Web itself. The lesson we’ve all lived is that people start deploying technology before IT is ready to manage it. But, they do deploy it — and there’s no consistent archetype or persona (in our experience) who can claim exclusive advocacy. Our sales experience shows a dizzying variety of job titles, responsibilities and roles who seek a MAM solution, who are eager to take control of their enterprise mobility — and that acceptance is now permeating the enterprise at every level.
People aren’t waiting for the advantages to be bestowed via the approval of IT. They have their devices. They see what apps can help them do their jobs better. They’re driving the downloads. It’s the job of the enterprise to respond with the most intelligent management capability possible. We can’t wait while device providers deal from a stacked deck. It’s better, we think to run a straight game where everyone gets a seat at the table.
