This is a guest blog post. Views expressed in this post are original thoughts posted by Nushin Hernandez, Analyst at Canalys.

The survey results of Juniper Networks’ Trusted Mobility Index have highlighted just how pervasive the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend really is. Looking at the mobile device market – according to Canalys estimates worldwide smart phone shipments grew approximately 63% last year, similarly pads or tablets have seen rapid adoption, up a staggering 274% by the end of 2011. Smart phones and tablets in particular, which have conventionally been viewed as consumer devices, are increasingly making their way into corporate environments and businesses around the world are now faced with the challenge of managing a growing mobile workforce using multiple devices and multiple operating systems with increasing data consumption. These mobile devices can no longer be categorised as simply corporate or consumer. The number of personal-liable devices has grown considerably over the last year. Canalys estimates the number of personal-liable smart phones will grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 43% from 2011 through to 2015.

So today saw the launch of Juniper Networks’ Trusted Mobility Index research and findings. We held an exclusive breakfast meeting with selected journalists to hear the findings of this research in London this morning.

Penny Still introduced the session and set the scene and agenda. She highlighted that the research combined theories and best practices about Trusted Mobility and gave a short summary on how the research was conducted with over 4,000 respondents interviewed in US, UK, Germany, Japan and China.

Today’s speakers at the event included;

• Nushin Hernandez, Analyst, IT Security Analysis and Mobile Security Analysis Services, Canalys
• Paul Gainham, Senior Director, Marketing, EMEA, Juniper Networks
• John Smith, ICT Network Manager, Settle College
• Oliver Crofton, Ethical Hacker, Vigilante Bespoke

With almost with the same regularity as I drink tea, I can’t seem to get through a business day at the moment without discussing either SDN or Openflow.  Whether that’s an internal discussion, meetings with partners, customers or press / analysts this is a topic that is clearly gathering momentum.

Before going on, I should declare my position and interest.  From what I have seen so far, what the proponents of SDN are evangelising has an appeal – often networks today are too complex and rigid and have fallen behind the apps / virtualisation world in terms of their agility.  In an increasingly on-demand cloud centric environment, clearly that is something that has to be fixed. 

The early proponents of SDN are articulating an approach that creates a new virtual control plane layer outside of the current networking equipment layer.  That virtual control plane is being positioned as more flexible, dynamic and agile than what currently exists.

There is a mildly humorous saying amongst the acting fraternity that you should never work with children or animals, the inference being that they are likely to do unpredictable things at the most inappropriate times.  In marketing that saying translates to never ask end users opinions on anything because they either tell you things you don’t want to hear or come back with comments you were not expecting.

Not strictly true of course and said a little tongue in cheek but as we looked through the results of the Juniper Networks Trusted Mobility Index report, there were some real surprises.

I am pleased to announce the details of Juniper Networks’ upcoming Twitter Chat.  We will be hosting a Tweet Chat on 9 May at 11am (BST) with Oliver Crofton, Ethical Hacker, Vigilante Bespoke and Paul Gainham, Senior Director Solutions Marketing EMEA, Juniper Networks. The theme of the chat will be mobile device security, threats and how you can secure your device and network.

Anyone can participate, so please do join the chat on 9 May at 11am (BST).  All it takes is to log into Twitter, follow the hashtag #mobilechat between 11am and 12 noon (BST) and join in the conversation by adding a question for Oliver Crofton and or @PaulGainham. Note that the chat will be hosted from @Juniper_UK, with various moderators. If you want to submit your mobile security chat question before the event, then please direct message either @Juniper_UK or @ZoeSands.

I look forward to seeing you on Juniper Networks’ tweet chat - follow #mobilechat.

In recent months, I’ve read a lot of industry articles, whitepapers and blogs about the Social Enterprise or sometimes called Social Business . In essence this seems to mean enterprises are becoming more collaborative both internally with employees as well as externally with suppliers, business partners and most importantly customers. Yes it relies upon deploying new applications to support this collaborative effort but the most significant facet is the implications of a fairly radical cultural shift; both in terms of how we communicate and the future role that IT organisations need to play.

But as ever with market trends, there seems to be confusion in a broader context...

‘Congestion ahead take alternative route via xxx’

For those regular commuters using the UK road network an all too familiar and depressing sign that many have become resigned to as more and more traffic fights for comparatively less and less road capacity, particularly at peak hour.  The only salvation at this time of need comes from either a good old fashioned road atlas or satellite navigation, either of which may give you the opportunity to take avoiding action based on an understanding of where you are trying to get to and the possible alternative routes on offer.

Ok so not the most enlightening start to a blog but it does serve as a good if obvious analogy for how organisations should begin to think about planning for handling Internet congestion during the period of the London Olympics (27^th July – 9^th September if you count the Paralympic Games).

Many years ago when my father questioned why I was enjoying the music of the **bleep** Pistols and the singing of Johnny Rotten so much whilst he still espoused the merits of Frank Sinatra it was clear there was both a generational and cultural gap at play between us – to me Pogoing and Punk were everything, he could not see beyond Crosby and the crooners.  And whilst we disagreed musically and I continued my love of all things punk, I did so recognising the rules of the house I lived in and that maybe having a safety pin through my nose and spiky fluorescent hair would have maybe been a step too far.

So, cultural and generational gaps and differences of opinion like that have existed probably since time began and will continue in all likelihood until the earth stops spinning.

That leads me to the key item of discussion in this blog.  Is the current trend towards the consumerization of IT really a cultural / generational challenge or is it more of a gap in technology development waiting to be filled?

A slightly schizophrenic start to this blog but before I go on to explain my reasoning behind the title, I wanted to make clear that in my view the Consumerisation of IT and in particular the phenomenon of ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) will both have a positive impact on businesses and IT departments if proactively embraced.   Those benefits will accrue from progressive HR policies that recognise the growing importance of social media tools both in productivity terms (yes, social media tools can and will have a positive impact on employee productivity) combined with attracting and keeping the next generation of top talent from the so called ‘Generation Y’  genre.

In what looks like the boxing mismatch of the year of almost heavyweight vs lightweight proportions, in the red corner stands the lightweight incumbent; UK Network PLC whilst in the red corner stand the 3 Heavyweight challengers of Netflix, The Queens Diamond Jubilee and the Mobile Olympics.

2012 will witness the biggest traffic assault on UK network PLC in living memory from 3 major events

• The launch of Netflix to UK audiences in early 2012
• The Queens Diamond Jubilee in June
• The Mobile Olympics in July / August

The big question: Will UK Network PLC cope with this assault?

Is it me or has the whole debate around Machine to Machine and The Internet of things become almost like a scene from a high end auction room?  It seems as though a number of vendors have gone into chest beating mode in a bid to outdo each other with forecasts that seem to go up in 10’s of Billions of connected devices each time a new one emerges.

“10 Billion, 20 Billion, 50 Billion”. “Sold to the man in the tweed trilby hat”

OK so that’s a little flippant but as an industry we seem to have got ourselves into a ‘feel the quantity, forget the quality’ debate that at best appears shallow and self serving at worst appears to have completely missed a pretty fundamental point.

It is a delight to announce that Juniper Networks UK&Ireland WON the coveted Networking Vendor Of The Year award at the glittering CRN Awards gala dinner at Battersea Park in London.

I think the reason we won the award was that Juniper has based its entire go-to-market strategy on channel partnerships, placing the channel at the very core of its business. Hand-picking the right partnerships and not only nurturing these working relationships, but also driving the success of our partners overall is at the heart of our approach. At Juniper we are committed to our partners’ profitability and will continue to give them a competitive advantage when it comes to high-performance networking solutions and services. Through making considerable investment into its channel structure, over the last year, Juniper has recruited and retained 209 new resellers as well as appointed 13 new select partners in the UK. Juniper implements more face-time with channel partners enabling them to deliver the most value to their customers.

If forecasting is truly an art and not a science, then I guess I am more Volta then Van Gogh.

Having sent a final communiqué out to the customers and partners who had registered for the New Network Technical Forum on the 17 October informing them that the weather was set fair for this week, I arrived in Barcelona on Monday 24 October to the heaviest day of rainfall the city had seen for many, many years...

So, having put my slightly damp toga away now, it’s time to share some reflections on this week’s event (if you are wondering what a toga has to do this all of this, please read the blog ‘The New Network Technical Forum 2011 – Architecting the network for the next decade’ and if you look hard enough, really hard enough, there are some comments in there masquerading as humour).

IT Trends bear a striking resemblance to London buses. 

You can wait ages for one to come along and then find that, annoyingly, three arrive all at the same time.  Think of it, as we came out of the dot com crash of the early 2000’s, things were relatively quiet in terms of major trends and then, seemingly from nowhere, we get hit with Cloud, Consumerization, Machine to Machine and Smart Grid to name but a few, all of which leave businesses looking at their IT departments with the same facial expression that a child has when confronting parents with their latest homework: knowledge and expectation.

The New Network Technical Forum 2011 in Barcelona is almost upon us (25/26^th October).

As the lead marketer at an event that targets the technical leaders from our key EMEA customers and partners, I feel like the guy that was invited to a fancy dress party only to turn up and find everyone soberly dressed whilst I am left looking for the safety pins to hold my toga together.....