Red Hat Survey Identifies Back-end Integration and Security as Top Challenges for the Mobile Enterprise

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, 18th May, 2015 – Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today unveiled results from its recent mobile trends survey. According to the findings, while mobile plays a role for 73 percent of organizations, nearly half of the respondents identify security (45 percent) and back-end integration (43 percent) as the top challenges for mobile app development. Additional challenges identified by respondents include UI/UX design (35 percent), team collaboration (34 percent), and cost (24 percent).

Red Hat polled global customers to identify the priorities and challenges around enterprise mobility, as well as emerging attitudes toward the Internet of Things. Key findings from the survey include:

•More than half of organizations that are developing mobile apps are still dependent on do-it-yourself back-end integration solutions. When integrating mobile apps into back-end systems, 55 percent of respondents that develop apps say they use external sources (libraries, marketplace and vendor services) to develop custom back-end integrations, custom-developed back-end integrations coded from scratch, or a mix of both. This demonstrates a high dependency on do-it-yourself approaches to the complexity of connecting apps to enterprise systems. Although mobile application platforms and Mobile Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS) exist as effective solutions to integrate apps with enterprise back-end systems, less than one-third (30 percent) are using them, with one in five (20 percent) using application programming interface (API) management. In addition, 20 percent of respondents either use existing middleware technology or an API from their back-end software vendor to connect their mobile apps.
•The majority of organizations anticipate the Internet of Things (IoT) will impact their business. Most businesses are acknowledging the growing relationship between mobile and IoT by actively planning for the next wave of integration that will be required by connected devices. While 21 percent of organizations have already incorporated IoT projects into their business, more than one in four (28 percent) plan to do so in the next year, and 70 percent plan to do so over the next five years. Given the demonstrated pain point of back-end integration, companies should focus on a solution that effectively integrates IoT.
•Organizations’ priorities for IT resources are geared toward core systems. Despite the appetite for mobile and IoT, when allocating IT resources for the year ahead, 60 percent of respondents are prioritizing maintenance of core systems and applications. This points to shadow IT as an increasing trend, where the business bypasses IT to create and use their own apps.

Supporting Quotes

Cathal McGloin, vice president, Mobile Platforms, Red Hat

“As organizations shift to become more mobile-centric, back-end integration is where many are hitting a wall—the back-end presents myriad challenges, while other challenges such as security continue to be a concern. In order to solve these mobile issues, organizations should look to maximize efficiency by leveraging mobile platforms to accelerate development while reducing complexity.”

Nicholas McQuire, vice president, Enterprise, CCS Insight

“Without strategic change, many organizations are losing the competitive advantage mobility can provide, encouraging business units to turn to potentially risky shadow practices for their mobile needs. Winning IT strategies must be razor-focused on the needs of the business and end-users, embracing agile methodologies for application development, and adopting the technologies, toolkits, and platforms that support this. Mobile-first organizations that have made the shift will be better positioned for the Internet of Things.”

Methodology

On behalf of Red Hat, TechValidate conducted an online survey in March and April 2015, to understand priorities and challenges around enterprise mobility. The survey polled 112 global Red Hat customers, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses.