According to a recent report by Gartner Inc., by 2017, 25 percent of enterprises will have an enterprise app store for managing corporate-sanctioned apps on PCs and mobile devices.
Ian Finley, research vice president at Gartner said,”Apps downloaded from public app stores for mobile devices disrupt IT security, application and procurement strategies.Bring your own application (BYOA) has become as important as bring your own device (BYOD) in the development of a comprehensive mobile strategy, and the trend toward BYOA has begun to affect desktop and Web applications as well. Enterprise app stores promise at least a partial solution but only if IT security, application, procurement and sourcing professionals can work together to successfully apply the app store concept to their enterprises. When successful, they can increase the value delivered by the application portfolio and reduce the associated risks, license fees and administration expenses.”
Based on its study, Gartner has identified three key enterprise app store trends and recommendations of how organizations can benefit from them:
a) The increasing number of enterprise mobile devices and the adoption of mobile device management (MDM) by enterprises will drive demand and adoption of enterprise app stores.
“Many enterprises have looked to MDM vendors to provide these capabilities as part of the suite of services that MDM providers are selling,” said Phillip Redman, research vice president at Gartner. “Today, most MDM providers have a simple way of extending apps to mobile devices, usually through a basic agent on the device, but many are launching more-sophisticated app stores that can host enterprise and third-party apps to be accessed by smartphones, tablets and PCs. The development of mobile apps and the support of MDM will drive most enterprise app store implementations during the next 12 to 18 months.”
b)Enterprise app stores can support a more diverse and competitive automated software process requiring less procurement intervention.
“Enterprise app stores enable procurement to broaden user choice by encouraging providers to submit competing apps, and to monitor demand for popular apps that may benefit from better negotiation of license terms and prices,” said Stewart Buchanan, research vice president at Gartner.
c) The long-term success of an enterprise app store hinges on a dramatic increase in the supply of software solutions.
According to Gartner, few companies are still in the position to control their entire mobile value chain. Enterprise IT organizations should be transitioning from the traditional approach of selecting devices and software for users and instead, establishing transparent and enforced app curation policies — as is currently found in public app stores.
Pin It
