Software as a Service (SaaS) and Mobility

With the proliferation of smartphone devices in 2011, an increasing number of employees are using them to remain connected to their businesses. In some enterprises, they are even replacing the desktops and notebooks. As organizations embrace mobility, IT administrators are looking for a high performance, cost-effective, scalable, multi-tenant and multi-vendor support enterprise mobility platform. This calls for a platform that merges Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Software as a Service (SaaS) to provide support for both mobile devices and fixed IT assets. The result is another "as a service" offering: Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS).

Like SaaS, MaaS also shifts the responsibility of the enterprise's mobile infrastructure and management system to the software and service provider. It eliminates the need for additional hardware and staff, accelerates the implementation and increases user productivity by increasing reliability, scalability, and security. Some of the other empowering benefits of a cloud-based mobility platform are:

Anywhere and everywhere access: A cloud-based mobility platform allows IT administrators to manage, control and secure their IT assets outside the corporate perimeters with ease.

Improves risk management by enforcing end point security: MaaS delivers a significant increase to an organization's mobile risk management capability through real-time policy enforcement, remediation, and compliance reporting. If required, compromised or suspect mobile devices can be isolated from the corporate network until the risk can be mitigated to prevent further harm to the business.

Eliminates the Mobile Blind Spot: Corporate laptops and notebooks, residing outside the corporate perimeters, are visible even in the cloud. Thus, any relevant policies, procedures, patches and software updates can be enforced even when the device is off the corporate network.

Consolidates operations and reporting: IT administrators can deploy, manage and update multiple mobile devices (and their attendant network) and IT resources from a centralized console. They can ensure that the mobile endpoints are secure and compliance-controlled.

Increase in ROI: The MaaS platform delivers maximum cost savings and minimum infrastructure investments by integrating multiple vendor platforms and security applications into one solution. Like SaaS, MaaS platform has a scalable, multi-tenant, open and extensible architecture.

Reduction in carbon footprint: Going mobile not only helps corporations save money, but also reduce a mobile worker's carbon footprint.

Better work /life balance: Remote access solutions, encompassing a variety access methods and devices, and underpinned by sound security practices allow enterprises to deliver a flexible work place environment and simultaneously an increase in user productivity. Employees also benefit from a better work/life balance by not having to invest time in long unwanted commutes.