Mobile Cloud Use Tripled In 2011: Model Metrics

Mobility and cloud provider Model Metrics mobile use

According to the Chicago-based cloud and mobile VAR, more than 80 percent of its customers have smartphone and tablet adoption plans as part of their broader cloud computing initiatives, making mobilizing the cloud the top enterprise cloud priority this year. Whether customers are using dynamic illustrations of medical products on an iPad to guide surgeons in operating rooms to custom mobile applications to track product inventory, enterprises that make the cloud mobile seek to boost business processes and gain a large return.

Model Metrics based its findings on more than 150 customer engagements and found that cloud computing has evolved in the first half of 2011, with new technologies like mobility and social technologies leading the charge as the top customer priorities.

"The cloud has taken a new shape in 2011," said Model Metrics CEO Adam Caplan. "It's no longer just moving business processes to the cloud; it's about deploying cutting-edge mobile and social apps that enable businesses to change the way their employees work."

Following mobile, Model Metrics said that engaging communities with social technologies is the second biggest cloud priority for enterprises.

"In addition to leveraging social technologies such as Facebook and Twitter to more closely engage with their communities, 60 percent of Model Metrics' customers are exploring social enterprise technologies to improve employee collaboration. Enterprises are looking for guidance on how to turn this new paradigm of community engagement into business value using the cloud," Model Metrics wrote in its report.

The need to transition any business process to the cloud ranked third. From compensation and supply chain management to customer facing retail systems, Model Metrics said, "the sky is the limit" when it comes to what enterprises are building in the cloud.

Custom apps built on cloud platforms continue to accelerate and touch new areas of business, like mobilizing customer-facing business processes, budget management and vertical industry apps.

Another business priority Model Metrics has identified is the need to design cloud business apps that drive adoption.

"Enterprises want customized business and customer-facing apps that reflect their brand and are designed for usability, especially when it comes to mobile apps," Model Metrics wrote. "This requires new design methodologies specific to cloud user experience (UX) and user interface (UI)."

Model Metrics found that 80 percent of customers customize their UI and UX, including designing the most efficient clickstream for specific business processes.

And lastly, enterprise cloud customers want to deploy globally and customize locally, Model Metrics found.

Sixty percent of Model Metrics' cloud deployments in 2011 have a global reach, double the amount from a year ago. That results in multinational enterprise adoption of the cloud and an increase in enterprise-wide use cases and feature multilanguage support, localization and customer and partner access from anywhere in the world.