Change is good — but if you’re a CIO, there can be a lot of bad mixed in with the good, especially when it comes to a fast-changing technology that affects every aspect of your business and computing infrastructure. And that’s exactly what its like when it comes to mobile apps for business.
So what keeps CIOs up at night when they think about mobile apps for business? Nick McQuire, Vice President of Enterprise Research for CSS Insight sat down with Enterprise Mobility Exchange for a video interview, and he answers that and more.
He starts by setting the scene for what CIOs face when it comes to mobile: Business app downloads have increased by 200% in the last year alone. That increase is due to the download of third-party apps as well as custom apps built by businesses. Because of this, he says, almost all challenges having to do with mobile “revolve around this application deployment theme.” Third-party applications may not offer a full suite of tools to ensure business data security. Apps may lack a security framework altogether, presenting major issues for enterprises. Businesses may not want to distribute their custom apps to the public, however, and require the security of a private app store.
CIOs, Mobile Security, and Sleepless Nights
A big issue for CIOS, he says, that they will need to “get more familiar with managing and securing third-party applications.” One thing he didn't mention is that may not be just beyond their current expertise, but also may go against the grain of what they’ve done in the past, which is to set a clear demarcation between what’s inside the firewall and outside of it.In addition he says, because of the growing demand for mobile apps from the business side of things, CIOS are going to have to do “much more industrial-scale application development.” In other words, much more volume and a clearly defined, easily repeatable set of steps for app development.
One thing related to mobile keeping CIOs awake at night won’t surprise you: security. He notes that there’s been a ramp-up in well-publicized, targeted attacks on corporations globally. CIOs, he says, “want to make sure they’re not the next headline,” especially because of the serious business consequences of a company’s reputation taking a hit.
Finally, he sees what he believes is perhaps the biggest trend on the horizon for CIOs and mobile, and one that will cause quite a few headaches: The need to scale and globally optimize their backend systems. “That’s the very big pain point that companies are facing today,” he concludes. And if they don’t take care of it properly, it’ll be an even bigger pain point tomorrow.
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