Mobility will figure prominently in enterprise IT moving forward

Few may be surprised that several of the predictions listed among Gartner's forecast for enterprise IT in 2012 and beyond are centered on the rise of enterprise mobility.

Companies are seemingly either implementing or deploying mobile device programs all the time, so it only makes sense that the technology will receive increased attention during the next several years. Specifically, according to Gartner, consumerization and app development will gain more of a focus in the near future.

It's up to companies to prepare mobile device management and wireless expense management programs now in order to deal with such moves.

"The continued trends toward consumerization and cloud computing highlight the movement of certain former IT responsibilities into the hands of others," Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and Gartner fellow, said. "As users take more control of the devices they will use, business managers are taking more control of the budgets IT organizations have watched shift over the last few years."

By 2016, Gartner said, half of all enterprise email users will primarily access their accounts through a mobile device rather than a desktop platform. Remote access to email is what sparked the enterprise mobility movement, and it seems such capabilities will only to continue to drive the use of mobile technology upward.

While this trend has already taken off during the past several years, researchers said, several factors are working to accelerate it, including growing comfort levels with using mobile devices for enterprise tasks and improved mobile email platforms.

Gartner also addressed companies' plans to prioritize mobile app development in support of their sprawling mobility programs. By 2015, the research firm stated, mobile app development projects for smartphones and tablets will outpace those aimed at desktop PCs by a count of four to one. This is also a natural progression, as Gartner pointed out the fact that 90 percent of new net growth for enterprise device adoption during the next four years will be centered on mobile phones.

This could mean that mobile application management will also receive more of a focus moving forward, experts say.

Analysts at fellow research firm IDC also recently released a similar report. According to them, mobile computing is among a group of technologies growing 18 percent each year. By 2020, the report stated, the group, which also includes cloud services, social networking and big data analytics, will account for 80 percent of all IT spending.