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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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From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

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Despite the frustrations, every engineer we spoke with ultimately affirmed the value and power of OpenTelemetry. The "sucks" moments are often the flip side of its greatest strengths ... Part 2 of this blog covers the powerful advantages and breakthroughs — the "OTel Rocks" moments ...

OpenTelemetry (OTel) arrived with a grand promise: a unified, vendor-neutral standard for observability data (traces, metrics, logs) that would free engineers from vendor lock-in and provide deeper insights into complex systems ... No powerful technology comes without its challenges, and OpenTelemetry is no exception. The engineers we spoke with were frank about the friction points they've encountered ...

Enterprises are turning to AI-powered software platforms to make IT management more intelligent and ensure their systems and technology meet business needs for efficiency, lowers costs and innovation, according to new research from Information Services Group ...

The power of Kubernetes lies in its ability to orchestrate containerized applications with unparalleled efficiency. Yet, this power comes at a cost: the dynamic, distributed, and ephemeral nature of its architecture creates a monitoring challenge akin to tracking a constantly shifting, interconnected network of fleeting entities ... Due to the dynamic and complex nature of Kubernetes, monitoring poses a substantial challenge for DevOps and platform engineers. Here are the primary obstacles ...

The perception of IT has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years. What was once viewed primarily as a cost center has transformed into a pivotal force driving business innovation and market leadership ... As someone who has witnessed and helped drive this evolution, it's become clear to me that the most successful organizations share a common thread: they've mastered the art of leveraging IT advancements to achieve measurable business outcomes ...

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Real privacy protection thanks to technology and processes is often portrayed as too hard and too costly to implement. So the most common strategy is to do as little as possible just to conform to formal requirements of current and incoming regulations. This is a missed opportunity ...

The expanding use of AI is driving enterprise interest in data operations (DataOps) to orchestrate data integration and processing and improve data quality and validity, according to a new report from Information Services Group (ISG) ...