No iPads or iPhones where you work?
There are plenty of iPads, iPhones, and Android devices where I work. However, I don't really consider an end user device to be "enterprise" just because someone brings it into the building. The "enterprise" level technology is what you would find in the companies datacenter. You'll see plenty of MS, Oracle, HP, IBM, Dell, EMC, Citrix, VMware, and Cisco stuff in there, but Google and Apple are not driving the enterprise.
More importantly, none of those Google/Apple devices really mesh with our environment. As a matter of fact we just spent $250K implementing a VDI environment to provide a portal into our systems for these devices for a certain group of users. VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is a generic term for any technology that allows desktop computers to be hosted as virtual machines (VMware in our case) on servers in the datacenter (or cloud). Those virtual desktops can then be accessed through thin client workstations or iPads/Android tablets. The irony is that the virtual desktops are running Windows OS and apps because that is what is needed to interface with most enterprise environments. So, yes, I see plenty of bring-your-own iPads at work, but I also see that in our case it cost $250K initially, a Windows desktop OS license for each device, and a ton of IT time to make the device do something useful. The device is basically just a dumb terminal and iOS and it's apps serve no purpose other than making a connection to VDI. In contrast, a Windows 8 tablet could actually be owned by the company, added to the domain, and function just like any of our desktops.
ag1986 said:
I would disagree. Large companies like Genentech, Virgin America, Jaguar and National Geographic use Google Apps, not to mention the United States General Service Administration even. My firm has been using it for 2 years as well, and I personally am very happy with it. For context, I use a Galaxy Nexus as a work/personal phone, a Retina MBP as my work laptop. I also have a Windows desktop at work and my personal machine is a Windows 8 laptop. I'm very happy with how everything stays in sync. Tablets have little appeal for me, so that may differ from your perspective, but we also issue Nexus 7 tablets to employees and I've heard no complaints.
While there may be a small percentage of companies using Google apps in place of MS Office that is not the norm and that does not prove the original comment that I was replying to...
"I would argue that Microsoft understands the enterprise workforce of the past, but, appear to be clueless about the enterprise of the future. I suspect Google has a much better grasp of this."
Google apps is a generic set of programs that only covers a small percentage of the workflow of most companies. Nearly all large companies have lots of industry specific software, data, reports, and other technology that ties together to form their "enterprise environment." Then there are all of the backend things that are the actual backbone of the enterprise environment. The kind of things that the "enterprise workforce" (i.e. end users) don't even know exists. Like database servers and file servers that store and secure all of the companies data. Or things like Active Directory that manage all of the user accounts/devices and glue everything together. Or the software that is used to update workstations in mass so that some IT guy doesn't have to go around and install the latest version of Adobe Acrobat on 1000 computers. MS is a leader in these kinds of things and while they have competition in various areas of the enterprise world, it's not coming from Google or Apple.