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ITSM Futures: A Closer Look at Mobile and Unified Endpoint Management

Dennis Drogseth

In my last blog, I discussed how IT service management (ITSM) roles (and rules) are becoming more operations-aware. The blog examined a number of key game-changers for ITSM, including a growing requirement for shared analytics; the rise (not the demise) of the CMDB/CMS and service modeling; cloud as both a catalyst for innovation and a resource to be managed; and support for enterprise services such as facilities and HR. I also discussed two topics, mobility and unified endpoint management, that I’d like to examine in more depth here.

Mobility is King

OK — you probably didn’t need me to tell you that mobility is critical, but let me place its growing criticality in a more specific ITSM context with a few numbers.

■ 62% of our 270 respondents viewed lifecycle mobile support as “significantly” or “completely” impacting ITSM directions.

■ Mobility is anything but one-dimensional. In fact when we got the data for how actual mobile endpoints are being used by end users and ITSM professionals, the charts looked almost identical.

- 48% of end users and 45% of IT professional usage includes tablets, iPhones, Androids, and other mobile devices.

- 26% of both end users and IT professionals are using a mix of iPhone, Android, or other similar mobile endpoints (but no tablets).

- Only 15% (of end users) and 17% (of IT professionals) say they are not yet focused on any mobile devices.

■ 63% are using mobile endpoints in support of ITSM professionals with the following top-ranked results:

- Improved responsiveness to IT service consumers

- Increased IT efficiencies and reduced OpEx costs

- Improved collaboration between the service desk and operations

■ About two-thirds of our respondents allow end users to access corporate applications via mobile endpoints. And 50% of respondents offer their end users mobile access for ITSM-related requests and other interactions. Of these last, 78% saw “meaningful” or “dramatic” improvements in service delivery.

How Unified is Unified Endpoint Management?

Mobile is, of course, part of a bigger picture when it comes to endpoints. And here, our respondents generally favored integration and unified approaches. For instance, concerning mobile management, 58% preferred an integrated application that could support device management, configuration management, and enterprise mobility. Looking at endpoints more broadly, 82% viewed a unified console for managing mobile and traditional endpoints as “important” or “essential.”

When it came to unified endpoint management, the top seven functional priorities were:

■ Understanding software usage

■ License management

■ Software distribution

■ Operating system deployment

■ Patch management

■ Inventory management

■ Security

And the Winners Were …

So, how did the "extremely successful" map more specifically to questions of endpoint management and mobile empowerment? In my last blog, I mentioned that the extremely successful were twice as likely to leverage mobile for ITSM professionals, four times more likely to offer service consumers mobile support, and twice as likely to offer users access to corporate applications through mobile.

Here are a few additional data points regarding extremely successful priorities as opposed to those who were only somewhat successful, or unsuccessful:

Those who were extremely successful were:

■ Nearly eighteen times more likely to view lifecycle support for mobile users as “completely impacting” service desk operations

■ Three times more likely to have an overarching strategy for managing endpoints

■ Three times more likely to view managing and remediating endpoint issues at the service desk as critical

■ Four times more likely to prefer a single unified console for endpoints

So as you can see, the data here strongly suggests that a more progressive focus on both mobile and endpoint management helps to put ITSM teams in the winner’s circle.

Image removed.

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ITSM Futures: A Closer Look at Mobile and Unified Endpoint Management

Dennis Drogseth

In my last blog, I discussed how IT service management (ITSM) roles (and rules) are becoming more operations-aware. The blog examined a number of key game-changers for ITSM, including a growing requirement for shared analytics; the rise (not the demise) of the CMDB/CMS and service modeling; cloud as both a catalyst for innovation and a resource to be managed; and support for enterprise services such as facilities and HR. I also discussed two topics, mobility and unified endpoint management, that I’d like to examine in more depth here.

Mobility is King

OK — you probably didn’t need me to tell you that mobility is critical, but let me place its growing criticality in a more specific ITSM context with a few numbers.

■ 62% of our 270 respondents viewed lifecycle mobile support as “significantly” or “completely” impacting ITSM directions.

■ Mobility is anything but one-dimensional. In fact when we got the data for how actual mobile endpoints are being used by end users and ITSM professionals, the charts looked almost identical.

- 48% of end users and 45% of IT professional usage includes tablets, iPhones, Androids, and other mobile devices.

- 26% of both end users and IT professionals are using a mix of iPhone, Android, or other similar mobile endpoints (but no tablets).

- Only 15% (of end users) and 17% (of IT professionals) say they are not yet focused on any mobile devices.

■ 63% are using mobile endpoints in support of ITSM professionals with the following top-ranked results:

- Improved responsiveness to IT service consumers

- Increased IT efficiencies and reduced OpEx costs

- Improved collaboration between the service desk and operations

■ About two-thirds of our respondents allow end users to access corporate applications via mobile endpoints. And 50% of respondents offer their end users mobile access for ITSM-related requests and other interactions. Of these last, 78% saw “meaningful” or “dramatic” improvements in service delivery.

How Unified is Unified Endpoint Management?

Mobile is, of course, part of a bigger picture when it comes to endpoints. And here, our respondents generally favored integration and unified approaches. For instance, concerning mobile management, 58% preferred an integrated application that could support device management, configuration management, and enterprise mobility. Looking at endpoints more broadly, 82% viewed a unified console for managing mobile and traditional endpoints as “important” or “essential.”

When it came to unified endpoint management, the top seven functional priorities were:

■ Understanding software usage

■ License management

■ Software distribution

■ Operating system deployment

■ Patch management

■ Inventory management

■ Security

And the Winners Were …

So, how did the "extremely successful" map more specifically to questions of endpoint management and mobile empowerment? In my last blog, I mentioned that the extremely successful were twice as likely to leverage mobile for ITSM professionals, four times more likely to offer service consumers mobile support, and twice as likely to offer users access to corporate applications through mobile.

Here are a few additional data points regarding extremely successful priorities as opposed to those who were only somewhat successful, or unsuccessful:

Those who were extremely successful were:

■ Nearly eighteen times more likely to view lifecycle support for mobile users as “completely impacting” service desk operations

■ Three times more likely to have an overarching strategy for managing endpoints

■ Three times more likely to view managing and remediating endpoint issues at the service desk as critical

■ Four times more likely to prefer a single unified console for endpoints

So as you can see, the data here strongly suggests that a more progressive focus on both mobile and endpoint management helps to put ITSM teams in the winner’s circle.

Image removed.

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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