Is the iPAD fit for Business?

To miss the hysteria and hype of the iPAD release one would have to be caught in hibernation. Expectations of 10 million plus globally within the calendar year is an impressive 1st year performance for a single high end product.

Whilst the multi-touch interface, usability, mobility and size are key contributors to the device's popularity, the image of Apple - sheik and cool technology – contributes to hysteria normally reserved for rock stars.

The device and flexible development model are still some distance from being matched by business application functionality. How long the iPAD remains fashionable may be partly a factor of competitive agility and capacity to develop a superior device, More likely the continued success of the iPAD will be determined by applications and bona fide uses for the device making our lives more fulfilling.

Apps which enable productivity as well as a positive web experience in a moderately mobile device are key. Users will default to the iPhone on a night out, trip to the football or an afternoon of shopping so replicating the apps which make the iPhone the ideal mobile companion won’t be effective on the iPAD.

Apple will be challenged adapting to business admin space, currently the domain of their primary rivals, Microsoft and Google. Adding to that rivalry are some strained relationships with Adobe, making the potential for an alliance with key enterprise software market players limited.

Citrix, masters of managing business growth through enterprise alliances, could be the solution to making the iPAD fit for business application use, sustaining success for the latest revolution to originate from Palo Alto.

Citrix Receiver is available through the iPAD store making a virtual Windows desktop available as a business solution, pulling applications and documents through from the datacenter and creating the scope to make the iPAD an enterprise device.

What does this have to do with Software Asset Management best practice?

A train of thought amongst some industry experts and colleagues predicts merging of user and business devices extending to broadscale use of consumer devices in the workplace. Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) initiatives in organisations with IT savvy users and less rigid views of support are rare and likely to remain so for some time. For now and hitherto, the convention of controlled, secured and locked down devices will remain mutually exclusive with users operating their own devices on the network, however the prospect is brought somewhat closer by virtualisation.

Desktop or client-side virtualisation makes the prospect of using consumer devices in the workplace a possibility. Natively installed consumer applications and a virtual image with enterprise OS and applications are a genuine prospect for a number of user groups. As we close 2010 there are early adopters using the iPAD in anger with 100 plus roll outs becoming more regular if not more common.

A Xen image delivering Windows 7 and Office 2010 to the iPAD may be exciting to some but what of the implications for licence and asset management?

Of principal concern would be the following inventory side issues

1. Eliminating Installation and usage inventory owned by the individual
2. Managing audit tool agent deployment
3. Integrating with the virtualisation technologies to inventory software accurately.

Addressing the first two points, any device which isn't owned by the enterprise should avoid receiving an audit agent and removing the risk of pulling through data showing the user's own environment. In parallel your licence management solution will need to pull through data from Xen, AppV and more showing authorised user groups for applications, integrating and managing data for reconciliation with entitlement.

Properly planned, managed and administered the introduction of consumer devices such as the iPAD into the enterprise using virtualisation technologies ought not to create a Software Asset Management catastrophe. The productivity of a device without a mobile keyboard for most business applications remains debatable, however, sustained momentum and reliability will potentially see the iPAD contirbuting to the merger between consumer and business devices.

The author has resisted the temptation to acquire an iPAD – for now.