Article Written by Rajiv Taori, Vice President, Product Management, Mobile Platforms, Citrix

It is always fascinating to look into the viewing glass and predict the future. Last year this time my colleague made Phil Redman made some prescient predictions about 2015. Many of those relating to biometric authentication, personal cloud storage services, and wearables were spot on. However, enterprise mobile app adoption, which certainly growing dramatically, has not reached the heights we anticipated.

This year I get to take a point of view on what 2016 will look like. So here goes:

1.     Greater investment in business mobilization initiatives:

We used to think that mobile apps exclusively equated to business mobilization. In 2016, we will see business mobilization go beyond mobile app creation, and will also include mobile workflow and mobile forms. In addition to app developers, business managers and IT app admins can now also get into the action of creating mobile workflows.

2.     Growing convergence of identity & access management (IAM) and EMM:

EMM is used to apply security policies on mobile users and mobile apps. EMM solutions have also offered ever more enhanced biometric authentication, multi-factor authentication and single sign-on services for mobile. Traditionally these capabilities have been province of IAM systems. In 2016, I expect greater integration and convergence between these offerings.

3.     Password and identity hacks lead to growing investments in mobile threat management:

With the almost daily stories the emerge about stolen identities & credit card information, mobile actually offers an very interesting opportunity to mitigate them. With ready access to user biometrics and powerful computing in the hands of the user to be used to encryption/encoding, we will see more investment in mobile security as way for enterprise to actually strengthen their security posture.

4.     Convergence of EFSS and EMM:

Last year we predicted that enterprises would push more enterprise-class file sync and share services. This has come true, and we see the trend continuing with mobile security now being applied increasingly to files and data, not just to applications. We will see a growth in IRM solutions that will add unique value by enforcing rights on the data as it moved from endpoint to endpoint.

5.     Win10 as a catalyst turning MDM to Unified Endpoint Management:

EMM management started out with iOS / Android devices, and quickly spread to Mac management as well. With the arrival of Windows 10, EMM management can now be applied to all form factors of Win10 devices. This presents game changer for enterprises. While EMM was thought of mostly managing mobile devices or BYOD devices, it can now be used to manage all endpoint devices. Look for this to drive wholesale changes in endpoint management starting in 2016.

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About the Author

Rajiv Taori, Vice President, Product Management, Mobile Platforms 

As the VP, Product Management, Mobile Platforms Group at Citrix, Rajiv Taori is responsible for heading the products team for mobile device management, mobile application management, and mobile PIM applications. Prior to joining Citrix in 2013, he was the founder and CEO at MobileOps, which pioneered mobile app management and mobile app analytics solutions for enterprises. Previously, Rajiv led product and client engagement teams at Oracle, Mercury Interactive, and McKinsey & Company.