Aug
6
WRITTEN BY:
Mark Harriss
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Major benefits will be derived by making key business applications available anywhere, any time, using mobile devices. However, these benefits will not be realised unless the supporting network infrastructure is ready for mobility.
There are plenty of good reasons for businesses to be excited about mobility. Making key applications available to the right people, anywhere, any time, will produce and is producing real benefits to many organisations.
Organisations often focus on the business application and the end-user device. However, all too often, the network infrastructure is treated as an afterthought.
The network infrastructure can have major implications on the overall success of a mobility solution. If the network infrastructure needs to be upgraded, these costs may need to be factored into the business case, and any dependencies on the infrastructure need to be considered as part of the project delivery.
Infrastructure product selection and architecture can have major implications on the end-user experience and the operating costs, not to mention availability, performance and security of the solution.
The specific infrastructure requirements will be typically driven by the business application. These requirements may include connectivity to handheld devices using 802.11 wireless LANs, carrier mobile networks and internet-based VPN. There may also be a requirement to proxy mobile application traffic and to change the way devices authenticate.
The impact of poor infrastructure design decisions can be significant. For example, most solutions will require some form of authentication of end users. The wrong decisions can tarnish end users’ first contact with a mobility application, like unnecessary complexity with multiple logins and unnecessary user options. Similarly, poor decisions can result in unnecessary overheads for the team that inherits responsibility for operating and supporting the solution.
On the flip-side, a solution based on experience, best practices, appropriate product selection and adequate engagement throughout the design process, will deliver the optimal end-user experience. This doesn’t need to be at the expense of security and performance, or cause operating overheads.
If you get the foundation infrastructure right, your users will be engaged by the mobile application instead of the technology that should be seamless.