HP Calls for More Strategic Mobile Enterprise Approach

There’s no doubt that mobile computing is the new tail that is about to wag the enterprise dog. What’s not apparent is how transformative mobile computing really will be in the enterprise.

Not only will mobile computing devices become the primary vehicle through which enterprise applications are accessed, the way enterprise applications are built and managed is about to be transformed.

Looking to help IT organizations navigate these transition, Hewlett-Packard this week released new software and services that collectively can be used to modernize enterprise application development and deployment in the mobile age.

According to Paul Evans, solution general manager for application transformation in the HP Enterprise Group, the experience that users expect to enjoy on their mobile computing devices changes everything, from the way user interfaces are designed to the way business processes are orchestrated. Rather than making that transition in a piecemeal fashion, HP is making the case that IT organizations need to put aside tactical approaches to mobile computing in favor of a more strategic approach that encompasses the entire enterprise.

To that end, HP this week extended its mobile computing efforts with updates to its end-user monitoring, mobile application performance monitoring tools, and the HP Software Anywhere platform for building mobile applications. In addition, HP is making available HP User Experience Design Services to help organizations build mobile applications.

Evans says that most IT organizations see the value of mobile, but the majority don’t have the expertise required to build enterprise-class mobile computing applications. In addition, Evans says few of them fully appreciate the impact these applications will have on existing enterprise applications.

What HP is getting at is that rather than deploying mobile applications individually or enabling an HTML5 browser to be able to access an enterprise application, the next phase of mobile computing will require a much more comprehensive approach that includes not only the entire range of enterprise software applications, but also the IT infrastructure on which those applications run.

That may prove a little daunting, but the difference between having a mobile enterprise plan simply comes down to mobile computing being something that happens to the IT organization versus something the IT organization actually does.