InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

Among nearly 900 qualified respondents to our poll, 71% say m-commerce is very or extremely important to the future of their organizations. However, just 26% have comprehensive strategies in place now. That spells opportunity.

Exclusive research of 230 IT pros and 68 carriers ­providing 4G services shows that while customers are pleased with service now, the future looks far less certain.

Long Term Evolution is global, it's fast, and it's available now on 57 networks in 34 countries. Too bad it faces significant obstacles.

Long Term Evolution is global 4G. It's available on 57 networks in 34 countries, according to wireless industry advocate 4G Americas, with 100 networks in total expected by the end of this year. It's fast, and it could help IT fulfill mobility challenges. Too bad it faces significant obstacles.

When carriers off-load traffic, security is affected.

U.S. carriers see Wi-Fi as a helper technology for ­off-loading rapidly escalating data demand; elsewhere, carriers are deploying mesh 11n networks for off-load. What does all this mean for enterprise IT teams trying to control costs and make the most of mobility? For starters, we need to keep tabs on unified security/­ ­encryption, who’s actually building the mesh, and the crude handoffs between 3G/4G and Wi-Fi. We’ll explore trends in the technologies that are, together, the ­backbone of mobility.

Once a niche area, mobile applications are becoming strategic tools for companies trying to make employees more efficient, better service customers and become more competitive in today’s global markets. Getting to a high level of mobilization, however, is surprisingly difficult. In this report, we’ll showcase some trends and discuss ongoing challenges, such as accommodating multiple mobile platforms, dealing with security and accessing disparate back-end data sources.