Microsoft Virtualization Secrets

Understanding a Changing Workforce—Everyone Is Mobile

The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that by the year 2013, in the United States 75.5 percent of the workforce, or nearly 120 million people, will be mobile; and Japan is not far behind. As other countries catch up to this percentage, organizations must ensure that they can offer mobile users the same services provided to on-premise users, a challenge that marks a decided shift in how companies operate.

Low mobility refers to stationary users, such as employees sitting in an office, and walking users. High mobility would be driving in a car, for example, which results in slower link speeds (but still around 100 Mbps).

While mobile users may not have a direct connection to the corporate network, due to improvements to mobile broadband and technologies such as 4G, which offers up to 1 Gbps for low-mobility communications, plus free WiFi available in most restaurants and even stores, most mobile users do have a good connection to the Internet. The goal is to provide users with the services they need from the corporate network to Internet-connected devices. This also includes people using their home computers, adding another dimension to the challenge. Because organizations are providing services not only to machines on the Internet but also to noncorporate-owned devices, some solutions will be disqualified. In this increasingly mobile world, you are dealing not only with Windows PCs, but also iPads, Android slates, ...