
Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2015. Read them in this VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed article by Simon Rust, Director, Product Management at 1E
2015 Predictions for the Virtualization Market
The virtualization market is yet again poised for changes in 2015 as
growing BYOD demand will continue to push IT departments to evolve their
positioning and policies to satisfy employees. Throughout the latter stages of
2014, indicators have shown that virtualization technology is finally reaching
its maturity and is positioned for a successful year in 2015 with the help of
Windows 10 and several smaller vendors that will be driving the evolution of
Mobile Information Management. Our full list of 2015 predictions is included
below.
Prediction #1: Market will shift
to Mobile Information Management (MIM)
In 2015, we will start to see a shift from Mobile Device Management (MDM)
to Mobile Information Management
(MIM) limiting an organization's control over employees' personal devices to
solely the corporate information and data on those devices. Currently, under
the MDM segment, the majority of BYOD security solutions access everything that
is on an employee's personal cellphone or tablet - including pictures,
applications and email - allowing them to completely wipe the device to protect
corporate data if need be. Naturally, employees are reluctant, if not
unwilling, to give their employer complete control over their personal devices,
which has long been an obstacle for widespread adoption of BYOD.
Crucial to the long-term success of BYOD, the shift to MIM will bring the
ability for organizations to access only corporate data and applications that
are installed and stored on an employee's device with no visibility into
personal content or applications on the device. IT departments will only be
able to monitor and control corporate data downloaded onto an employee's device
with no access to personal material on that device. With an organization's
access to employees' personal devices limited to securing and wiping corporate
data, BYOD will become increasingly popular.
This is a paramount shift which has been demanded by employees. A major
indicator of the viability of this market need is demonstrated by the inclusion
ofenterprise data protection solutions as in Windows 10. After the Windows 8
debacle, Microsoft has listened to its users and is implementing controls to
secure corporate data individually from personal data on a user's personal
device. While Microsoft will fill as much as 80 percent of this market need,
small vendors will jump in to fill the gaps.
Prediction #2: Demand for BYOD
will shift to demand for BYOPC
While the
advent of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) was a revolution in the way that
employees access corporate resources on their smartphones and tablets, for most
users, these devices are purely consumption devices.For real work, users revert
to using their PCs, and in most organizations they will need to use Windows. With
this mindset shift within the user base, they are now demanding to use the PC
of their choice, often a Mac, leading to the next wave of BYOD; Bring Your Own PC (BYOPC).
As this shift continues, BYOPC use cases will change throughout 2015.Though
this will not be a monumental shift,BYOPC will extend beyond top executives who
havepreviously handed their Mac to the IT department and demanded that itbe
programmed to the network. Throughout 2014, we will see consultants, marketing
executives, product managers and more junior level employees wanting to use their
own computer. As this takes hold, companies will realize that they can save a
small fortune by not providing computers for employees.According to research by Gartner, by 2017 half
of the world's companies will have a percentage of their employees individually
provide devices for work.
Prediction#3: The increase of
importance of the IT Security Manager
Demand for BYOD has grown in the past 8-10 years as smartphones emerged and
workers gained interest in using their own device for work purposes. Throughout
2014, companies realized that they would need to listen to employees' demands
for BYOD and through 2015 these companies will begin implementing BYOD
policies. Because of this ongoing demand for BYOD and BYOPC, we will see the IT
Security Manager job function will become ever more important in an
organization. The role will oversee the implementation of BYOD policies and
security measures whichgive companies control over corporate data on one's
personal device instead of control over the entire device satisfying employees'
desires while doing so in a fashion that keeps company data secure.
Prediction#4:
VDI growth will remain stagnant
Estimates vary, but compared with the 700 million or so enterprise PCs
in the world, most analysts put the number of VDI users worldwide at anywhere
between 10-15 million (or approximately 2 percent of the workforce).With such a
low market penetration and the entrance of more affordable, flexible and secure
virtualization solutions in 2014, the outlook for VDI in 2015 is bleak. While
the market for VDI will likely not decrease, it is only positioned for small,
incremental growth as companies are shifting their focus to mobility solutions to
meet user demand. As the market moves toward a focus on mobile data and information
management, we will continue to stray from mobile device management,making VDI
an even less attractive option for workers.
There has been competition in the virtualization space for the past 5-6
years, however these solutions have had moderate to low success because the market
did not have as much of a need for such solutions combined with this
virtualization technology not yet being mature. In 2014, we saw a notable shift
as employees began to demand virtualization solutions for their personal devices
(laptops) and product teams increasingly implemented
controls separating corporate data and applications from personal data. These
controls will help drive virtualization and BYOD/BYOPC adoption in 2015 and
beyond.
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About the Author
Simon Rust has been a member
of the Product Management group within 1E since 2013, where he drives the
direction, roadmap and launch activities for the MyWorkNow product line for the business. Simon is widely
acknowledged as a desktop virtualization and end user computing knowledge
expert having previously chaired the Office of the CTO and led Product
Management and Strategy for over 10 years at the world leading user
virtualization vendor, AppSense.