The nation's enterprise mobility plans revealed

Tablets and virtualised desktops leading the charge as workforces become more mobile

A Computing survey of more than 300 UK IT professionals has provided a snapshot as to where the nation's enterprises are when it comes to mobility.

In line with predictions that tablets are to become the primary tool of choice for mobile workers, 36 per cent say they provide these devices to employees already, with 21 per cent planning to over the next few months. Newer tablets such as Microsoft's Surface Pro are emerging as business-ready laptop replacements and the move away from traditional platforms is going to continue.

Perhaps more surprising is an equally strong showing for desktop virtualisation. While the survey sample is predominantly based at large organisations, desktop virtualisation has been slower off the mark than many analysts predicted, largely because of difficulties in delivering the desired levels of performance without incurring additional infrastructure costs, especially in smaller firms.

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However, VDI certainly provides a secure and manageable way to allow access to familiar tools on a variety of devices, and moves are being made among VDI vendors to reduce costs and simplify implementation; these figures, and those of a previous survey, suggest renewed interest in VDI as at least a partial solution to the difficulties in managing mobility. The previous Computing survey found that on average between a quarter and a half of desktops were virtualised among the organisations polled.

Next came another old-timer, unified communications. UC is an enabler of mobility, allowing work calls and data to be routed directly to mobile devices and generally simplifying the rollout of BYOD. Indeed the advent of BYOD is giving UC a new lease of life.

Twenty-five per cent of those polled already have a BYOD policy in place, with a further 19 per cent looking to do so within the next few months. Many organisations are starting to realise the extent of the changes being brought to the workplace by mobile technologies and are trying to figure out how to best harness them for their particular needs. Many firms (24 per cent) are standardising on one or two platforms, for example, with Apple and Windows leading the pack, while 10 per cent claim they can integrate across all platforms.

The next 12 months look like seeing a steep rise in the use of cloud services to bolster mobile provision and management. Like UC, cloud and mobility go hand in hand.

Finally we come to the new kid on the block: enterprise app stores. These are certainly generating interest, enabling organisations to control and tailor apps and their settings according to the user, as well as hosting apps written in-house. As yet, just 10 per cent have made the move though, leaving three-quarters with no plans at present.