Mobile technology has become almost ubiquitous. Tasks that previously required sitting at a desk to use a traditional PC are now routinely completed using a device that can fit in the palm of someone’s hand. Many are referring to this evolution of computing as the post-PC era. Companies are struggling to keep pace with what can seem like a constant stream of requests to support smart phones, tablets, cloud-based storage and apps that users have strong allegiances to in their personal life.

This has enormous implication for IT departments that are accustomed to dictating technology selections. Research shows it might be beneficial for businesses to acquiesce. Allowing users to leverage the technology they most prefer can mean more satisfied employees and fewer training costs. Wider support for mobile can increase staff availability and responsiveness, and frankly, whether or not companies choose to support employed owed technology officially, the technology is eventually going to find its way onto corporate networks.

It is important for IT leaders to understand that embracing and managing this consumerization of enterprise technology isn’t a one-time activity that can be completed and forgotten. Adapting to this new post-PC environment is an on-going process. Businesses must regularly revisit and adjust their strategy and to meet evolving user and technology needs.

Brian Gammage, Chief Market Technologist, End User Computing, VMware, provided a few tips for organizations struggling to manage the many changes the post-PC era is introducing. According to Gammage, organizations move through three phases in their transition to manage a post-PC environment effectively –improve what you have now, embrace the cloud and escape the cloud. The first phase focuses on virtualizing the environment:

• Inventory the environment to understand the existing environment and identify how the requirements might change due to the introduction of new device and application types.
• Review the application portfolio, virtualize as many applications as possible, and establish rules for new applications. This will highlight opportunities to rationalize and simplify desktop software loads.
• Begin the migration to upgraded, virtual desktops.
• Review local and federated user requirements; use desktop personas and image layering to extend the virtual desktop deployment to as many users as possible.

The second phase focuses on simplifying the deployment process:

• Extend enterprise policies to the cloud.
• Ensure that cloud services provides the same richness of service and access to data that traditional applications provided
• Use virtualization capabilities on laptops, smartphones and tablets to synchronize this cloud-based persona securely with mobile devices, enabling desktop-as-a-service to be delivered to mobile devices.

The final phase completes the transition:

• Establish the cloud as the primary source that users access for services.
• Reduce user dependence on the desktop.
• Replace legacy and locally deployed application with cloud-based alternatives.

These guidelines are obviously heavily virtualization focused, but that’s not especially surprising given the origin. Whether or not virtualization takes a starring role in an organization’s efforts to support the continually widening range of mobile devices and applications ushered in by the post-PC era, the underlying theme in these recommendations is still valuable – embrace client and location agnostic techniques for delivering services.