Yes, it’s that time of year again when the IT faithful board a jet plane to sing mobility at Gartner Orlando. Unlike Orlando visits of years past when BlackBerry was all the rage, this year will likely focus on today’s three horseman of mobility – Apple, Google and Microsoft. Back in the good ol’ networking days ex-Fortune editor Joe Nocera used to write about the Four Horsemen of IT. He’s talking differently now and the times they are a’ changing. Speaking of horseman here’s a shout out to my favorite new fall TV show Sleepy Hollow. Think of it as Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Fairy Tale theatre. Or better yet HANA’s alter ego Hansel and Gretel with the witch as an obvious competitor in catch up mode.
While in Orlando next week I plan to get a few 5k runs since training for ski season is underway now that the first snow has fallen. And those runs will be all about mobile. First, mobile songs on the wireless headset then mobile karoke to those unfortunate enough to hear me belting out Eagles “Take it Easy” at the top of my lungs. And the coup de grace will be Gartner’s four day discussion centering largely on the increasingly mobile enterprise universe that our 250,000 customers are building for themselves. There is no one “best” mobile starting point for every customer of course, some will start by building the perfect app. Others will want to ensure their users avoid free “crapplications” for secure content management. And of course others will start with application management and device policies via Mobile Device Management. Wildcard starting point on a customer’s mobility journey could be secure app wrapping to allow regulated industries (and other concerned citizens) to harden both internal and 3rd party iOS and Android apps.
Back up at the Orlando microphone, someone will inevitably queue up Grease Summer Nights since Florida will be a steamy 90 degrees and 90 humidity. While Disney is fun I must admit to wanting to fish for a dolphin (aka Dorado) vs. sit in the Disney’s Dolphin air conditioning. At least the conversation between SAP and new comprehensive mobility partner AT&T and Samsung re: SAFE/KNOX will keep the time moving along nicely. Please drop me a comment reply or stop by SAP’s booth #534 at Gartner to connect about SAP’s enterprise mobility and HANA demos we’ll be sharing next week.
