Apple + IBM Enterprise Collaboration Declared “Biggest News Of 2014”
Highly respected Asymco blogger Horace Dediu has declared the Apple-IBM MobileFirst enterprise collaboration to be the biggest IT news of 2014, calling this new union “profoundly important” indicating and evidencing change on a vast scale. Dediu notes that a convergence of corporate interests that gelled into into the landmark deal stems from an evolution of computing around what is collectively dubbed “mobile,” observing that Apple is determined to accelerate adoption of its mobile platforms among remaining non-adopters, particularly enterprises, while IBM simultaneously intends to connect data warehouses at those same enterprises to their employee users.
Dediu further observes that both companies can better achieve their respective goals by joining forces, with Apple offering assistance and expertise while obtaining access and lubrication for introducing its mobile hardware to the enterprise, while IBM offers modular access to databases through its APIs and benefits from credible client experiences. He says the recent release of the first tranche of IBM MobileFirst apps has demonstrated just how transformative this relationship can be, unveiling apps that appear to be designed for users and not for committees that prepare checklists of requirements, and applauds IBM for showing the courage to resist featuritis that typically plagues enterprise software design.
IBM has posted a MobileFirst Website outlining a four-pronged emphasis for its “Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms mobile business software program: “Build, Protect, Engage, and Transform. IBM notes that mobile devices “have transformed our personal lives,” and that soon, “they’ll transform the way we work.”, and that IBM and Apple are joining forces to bring businesses the devices, services, security, and integration they need to exploit the full potential of mobility.
The company says that right now, engineers, designers, and developers from both Apple and IBM are working on more than 100 end-to-end mobile solutions, including a new category of mobile apps, that are ready for the enterprise — each of which will address a specific industry need and is being designed from the ground up with cloud software services for analytics, data security, and device management native to iOS.
IBM further notes that this new generation of mobile enterprise solutions combines the power and ease of use ofApple’s iOS mobile platform with IBM’s industry knowledge, consulting, and delivery services, and that the IBM MobileFirst Platform provides an enterprise-class cloud solution for building and deploying elegant, integrated apps for iOS. Apple also has a Webpage extolling the virtues, benefits, and advantages of iOS 8 as a powerful business platform.
MobileFirst will offer analytics applications focused on six categories: Banking, Government, Insurance, Retail, Travel and Transportation, and Telecommunications. Data collected by customers in these six sectors will be stored on IBM’s cloud servers and will be accessible on the user’s iPad or iPhone from anywhere. IBM’s MobileFirst website says: “Analytics can help explain how mobile customers are interacting with your enterprise. Track your current mobile engagement efforts, crunch the numbers, and then send contextually relevant messages, alerts, and offers to your customers in real time,” and “By bringing together the analytics and enterprise-scale computing of IBM with the elegant user experience of iPad and iPad, this partnership will deliver a new level of value for businesses.”
