– Jonathan Temple, CEO of Frontrange, says:
The future of wearable tech is so bright we’ll soon all be wearing Google sunglasses. Juniper Research expects worldwide spending on wearable devices to jump from $1.4 billion this year to $19 billion by 2018.
In another report, ABI Research claims that sales of wearable computing devices will exceed 485 million shipments worldwide by 2018. “Wearable technology such as smart glasses and those used for healthcare are better suited for the enterprise as corporate-liable devices. Smartwatches, on the other hand, will most likely follow the trend of BYOD into the enterprise,” according to Jason McNicol, senior enterprise analyst for ABI Research.
In just five years, the BYOD revolution has morphed into an the explosion of “BYOx,” the “Internet of Things” and now “Wearable Tech.” According to Gartner, there will be over 30 billion connected devices by 2020. The obvious question is, “How are we going to manage this proliferation of new devices?”
From an IT Service Management perspective, forward-looking CIOs and IT Directors are evaluating the bigger picture of Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solutions that go well beyond device control and configuration.
Despite this snowballing trend of connected devices, a current EMA survey has determined that only 15 percent of enterprises are fully prepared to meet increasingly demanding mobility management and wearable tech requirements, while citing UEM solutions as the next major trend in IT Service Management. A recent blog by ITSM expert, Mareike Fondufe, demonstrates the advantages of a UEM strategy by citing a common use case.
The growing popularity of wearable tech creates an increasingly heterogeneous array of mobile devices, virtually all of which will inevitably be used for business purposes. A consolidated UEM approach is the logical choice as the workforce adds yet another device to their everyday toolset.
ITSM needs to evolve from simply being a tactical service to a strategic business enabler and there is a growing consensus that these needs are best met by a UEM approach that provides centralized and remote monitoring, deployment, provisioning and management.
