It’s been a while since my last career update, and as interesting and diverse as the ecosystem is in opportunities to get involved with various projects*, I’m happy to be going back to FTE 😁.
Over the last several months I’ve been doing a lot more with AMAPI - as you’ll no doubt see if my posting history is anything to go by - and an opportunity presented itself to join NinjaOne to help build out and expand their endpoint management solution to mobile. Having interacted in the past (👋 Leo!) with NinjaOne, I know they’re a decent bunch, so I took the offer to go full time leading the Google stack in the just-launched NinjaOne MDM.
I’m incredibly excited to join at a time when mobile is a big focus for the organisation, and offers profound opportunities to take an already-successful endpoint management platform to the next level in the mobile ecosystem; as it stands today, 84 percent of companies allow or require employees to use their personal cell phones for work tasks, 19% of global Android shipments (according to the Android Enterprise Global Partner Summit) are strictly for enterprise, and the dedicated (AE) ecosystem is beginning to come together, particularly with Google’s changes in Android 15.
Having been a long-time advocate of enterprise mobility and endpoint management (see this article as one of the first handful of thought-pieces from nearly 10 years ago (🥲) which still holds some relevance), it's evident that the work-from-anything/anywhere productivity mobile devices have enabled is unrivalled in today's corporate environments - but it’s certainly not without its challenges.
The biggest problem I still see today in the ecosystem is the lack of awareness and education, with only 35-40 percent of organisations (I still believe that’s roughly where we are, though figures are from ~2020, and it sounds like enterprise shipments for Android may be contributing to that growing) using some kind of device management; many are still sending devices out into the wild without proper oversight or management – unaware of the implications or risks associated with supporting a (sometimes fully) mobile and remote workforce. This is even more prevalent in the SMB space.
One of the opportunities towards addressing this is via messaging, marketing and enablement through an already well-established platform; NinjaOne’s reach into the IT and MSP space offers a rare opportunity to be heard by many customers who haven’t necessarily thought about mobile device management up to now, and of course many more who haven’t felt they’ve got the tools to make the leap. I’m excited to drive that through NinjaOne’s MDM, and further promote modern Android (and ChromeOS!) management in the coming months alongside my MDM team, Josh & Paul.
*I’m still working on projects within the ecosystem in my own time, so feel free as always to get in touch if you’ve a mobility challenge you need assistance with 😊.