The Apple-IBM Alliance: Illuminating the Future of BYOD

By Yorgen Edholm, CEO, Accellion

The mobile revolution, while firmly embedded in the consumer world, is now beginning to hit its stride in the enterprise world. This can be seen in the recent announcement from Apple and IBM, whose strategic alliance to develop joint solutions leveraging Apple devices and IBM software is an important next step for how enterprises consider mobile technology.

Ginni Rometty, IBM’s CEO, described the partnership as combining two complementary sets of assets, stating that IBM has the big data, the analytics capabilities, the integration work, and the cloud. On the other hand she mentions that Apple has the devices, the development environment, and the focus on usability. The combination of these elements is what will make a truly groundbreaking enterprise experience on mobile devices.

So what can we conclude from the Apple/IBM alliance?

• iPhones and iPads, are clearly ready for enterprise-grade computing. Whatever skepticism businesses had about the iPhone back in 2007 and 2008 has largely dissipated, so much so that IBM is willing to bet major R&D and sales initiatives on iOS devices.
• Enterprises like iOS devices, but they’re also looking for a mature software platform with proven capabilities in the areas of security, scalability, and control.
• IBM and Apple see the opportunity to bridge the gap between consumer mobile devices and enterprise-grade solutions for data access, data management, and communication.

We agree - the enterprise is ready to seriously take on the mobile revolution. At Accellion we have already begun bridging the enterprise mobile gap by enabling secure file sharing, synchronization and collaboration on mobile devices. The kiteworks solution enables business users with iPhones, iPads, Android devices and Windows Phones to have access to their enterprise content wherever it is stored inside or outside the firewall to be able to share and collaborate on those files securely. The kiteworks platform provides rigorous security features such as 256-bit encryption, built-in AV scanning, and rule-based access controls, along with critical enterprise features, such as LDAP support, Data Loss Prevention (DLP) support, and essential enterprise content connectors for integrating mobile solutions with existing enterprise infrastructure and enterprise content systems.

I’m looking forward to see what kind of enterprise solutions for analytics, cloud services, and mobility Apple and IBM create through their best-of-breed partnership. There should be interesting opportunities for combining our enterprise mobile technologies to unleash the productivity gains of a mobile workforce.