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| English: Cloud Computing visual diagram (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
IT departments are embracing both
cloud computing and
mobile devices
for their multiple benefits. At first, these two technologies may seem
to be fairly independent; mobile technology focuses on driving
efficiencies in data centers, while the cloud brings new levels of
flexibility and usability to end users. Both technologies are valuable
on their own, but enterprise potential is amplified when mobile and
cloud are used together.
Some functionalities that tablets lack can be found in
cloud computing resources. For starters, most mobile device applications are designed for
non-desktop platforms, like Android and
iOS,
and they tend to have a narrower range of functionality than
desktop
applications. Though tablets offer more mobility than even ultra-light
laptops, they lack the substantial storage and are not designed to
compete head to head with workstations or laptops when it comes to
compute-intensive operations. There are a number of ways to meld tablets
and cloud computing to deliver desktop-like functionality, and offer
alternatives to traditional desktop experiences.
Bringing desktops to the cloud
One way to leverage the
benefits of cloud computing for tablet users is to bring traditional desktops to the tablet.
Virtual desktop infrastructure
(VDI) runs virtual desktops in a centralized infrastructure, which can
reduce management overhead, improve consistency across desktops, and
increase end-user access to desktop environments. In a similar way,
admins can use
cloud-based virtual desktops, known as
Desktop as a Service
(
DaaS), rather than installing and maintaining a VDI. With DaaS, end
users can access their virtual desktop from multiple devices, including a
tablet.
There are a number of advantages to deploying virtual
desktops. First, users can access applications and data on their
desktops from a variety of devices, including tablets. Second, in the
case of VDI, user data resides in a company data center, and in the case
of DaaS, data resides in a cloud provider's data center. This frees up
on-premises storage space and ultimately saves enterprises money. And
finally, users are not dependent on
mobile-designed applications for tasks that are best done with full desktop applications.
DaaS and VDI
improve mobility to established desktop platforms by bringing the
desktop to the tablet -- but can IT teams create even greater mobility?
Rethinking the desktop for mobile devices
What
if instead of bringing existing desktops to tablets, IT teams used the
tablet interface as the starting point for deploying enterprise
applications? The cloud is a natural fit for delivering those services
-- as long as IT teams secure the tablet-cloud platform and deliver the
appropriate apps for end users.
Mobile device management (MDM) systems
can provide important security functions, such as enforcing tablet
configuration policies, whitelisting and blacklisting apps, enabling
encryption, and remotely wiping lost or stolen devices. With MDM
systems, administrators can control some of the same types of asset
management tools for desktops and servers.
MDMs allow IT teams to
control tablets and other mobile devices, but from an end-user's
perspective, a major benefit of tablets is the ability to personally
configure your own device. For example, if a user finds a productivity
app that reads
.xls files, he can download it for data analysis without
waiting for IT to install the app. The responsibility of managing
devices is shared between system administrators who set and enforce
policies, and end users who must download apps within the parameters set
by company policies.
In addition to a shift in responsibility,
there is a shift toward using common file formats and application
programming interfaces for applications. Light number crunching can be
done on a tablet with a spreadsheet app, while more involved statistical
analysis can run in the cloud -- assuming both can access and read the
data.
Tablets are not a desktop replacement for all end users.
Users of
Microsoft Word's niche functionality or the advanced functions
in Excel, for example, won't be satisfied with tablet office
productivity apps -- at least not yet. The combination of tablet and
cloud computing functionality, however, enables us to rethink the
desktop and envision a flexible, useful alternative that leverages the
advantages of both.
by Dan Sullivan, M.Sc., is an
author, systems architect and consultant with more than 20 years of IT
experience. He has had engagements in advanced analytics, systems
architecture, database design, enterprise security and business
intelligence. He has worked in a broad range of industries, including
financial services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, software
development, government, retail and education. Dan has written
extensively about topics that range from data warehousing, cloud
computing and advanced analytics to security management, collaboration
and text mining.
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