In the Age of Cloud Computing and BYOD, Does the Client Even Matter?

Grazed from SQLMag. Author: Michael Otay.

Today, IT is on the brink of a couple of important evolutionary—maybe even revolutionary—steps. At one end of the spectrum, there’s the cloud. The cloud represents a return to a more centralized computing model, in which a cloud provider delivers the control of massive amounts of computing power. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum is the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend, in which end users want to choose and use their own low-powered phones, devices, and tablets to access both their corporate resources and their personal data. It’s ironic that these two seemingly opposite trends are developing at the same time. One is about massive scalability and relinquishing control, and the other is about individual choice and personal control.

Slow Going and Fast Moving

The trend toward the cloud is a much slower-growing movement because of a number of factors, including security and the inherent difficulty of changing infrastructure services. However, the proliferation of end user devices in business environments is exploding just as the number of small-form-factor devices is exploding worldwide. The BYOD trend was initially kicked off by Apple’s iPhone, which quickly usurped the then-predominant BlackBerry…

After that, the introduction of Google’s Android and later the iPad really pushed devices over the top. And you know what happens after users have new devices in their hot little hands: They want to connect them to IT applications, email, and other resources. Gartner estimates that more than half of the adults in the in the United States own a smartphone, and we all know that percentage is much higher with people who work in the technology field…

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