Few would argue that in the past few months mobility has joined cloud as the subject of continuing conversation in the communications business. Not being particularly focused on either topic directly, I see that half of my postings since June have one or the other word in the title.
So when the Cisco PR machine approached me about a briefing on the mobile cloud, my first reaction was, Why haven't these two been brought together before now? The answer is that these discussions have been taking place, but perhaps not with the buzz that Cisco is hoping to create with a piece of recent research.
Today, Cisco announced results of what they are calling the first industry research on Mobile + Cloud. The study was undertaken by Cisco IBSG (Internet Business Solutions Group), an internal strategy consulting organization that works with lead Cisco customers on a relatively small number of engagements each year (~20) that help identify market transitions and ultimately provide thought leadership for the rest of Cisco (as it makes product and market investment decisions), as well as the industry in general.
Cisco IBSG surveyed mobile business users "to understand mobile cloud behaviors and preferences." Specifically, the study sought to understand current and future needs with respect to the mobile cloud, and preferences for paying for mobile cloud services, with an eye towards determining the size of the market for both Cisco and its carrier customers.
Of the top 5 predictions for mobile cloud that came out of the research, the one that seems most intriguing to me is that by 2012, dual persona capabilities on mobile devices will begin to blur professional and personal boundaries. When I asked Cisco IBSG's Scott Puopolo to add some color to that prediction he said that if you ask users today, 20% say they are already using their devices that way. Think of vendor-specific mobile soft clients; all the enterprise communications vendors have some flavor of this, usually where they must build device-specific versions for RIM, iPhone, Nokia, etc.
With the huge increase in a "bring your own device" (BYOD) model, enterprises need to have multiple versions to keep up with their users. The answer is a thin client configuration on mobile devices. If you combine that with a cloud paradigm, enterprise-specific data resides in the cloud, so if you lose your phone, nothing is lost. Calendaring, contact lists and other data remains secure.
The notion of thin clients enabling the mobile cloud dovetails with a message shouted loud and clear at Dreamforce this week--the future that Salesforce.com is betting on is HTML5. From the re-tweet I got from a Cisco manager when I shared this message on Twitter yesterday, I'd say that's a direction Cisco agrees with.
