Enterprises need strategies to handle mobile data: Gartner

Research firm Gartner predicts that most IT leaders will be caught out by the deep impact that mobile apps have on their information infrastructure. Most mobile apps will sync, collect and analyse deep data about users and their social graphs by 2015, and by 2017, wearable devices will drive 50% of total app interactions, the company said.

"IT leaders should ensure they have infrastructure in place that takes into account data collected, not only via mobile apps, but also from apps running on wearable devices," said Roxane Edjlali, Research Director at Gartner.

To date, most applications have been developed to support specific business-to-consumer interactions. For example, some use location data to offer contextually relevant information, and some also collect other information about their users — such as gender and age group — to further refine the interaction.

"Personal data is often collected solely in support of a mobile app's requirements and not considered an asset within an organisation's overall information infrastructure," said Edjlali. "Consequently, although this data is accessed and potentially stored in support of an app, it is not managed as a full 'citizen' of an enterprise's information infrastructure."

The line between acceptable and unacceptable use of consumer data can be very thin, and it gets even thinner as the data collected becomes more detailed and personal. For example, organisations collecting biometric data through mobile apps linked to wearable devices could be tempted to monetise this data by reselling it.

"Even if personal or biometric data is anonymous, it could have a major impact on a person's ability to get adequate health insurance, if they are identified as belonging to a risk category," said Edjlali. "In addition, mobile apps that use third parties for authentication deliver data on customer behaviour to those third parties."

These risks relating to data collected from mobile apps require organisations to rethink their governance policies and adjust their information infrastructure.

Such organisations should: 

• Manage the persistency and perishability of data collected from mobile apps.
• Monitor access to and control of this data. It is important to ensure that personal data collected from mobile apps remains private, and that it is secured, anonymised and accessed according to the organisation's governance policies. Proper management of user agreements and opt ins are important aspects of this.
• Control the sharing and reuse of mobile app data for other purposes. 

Gartner points out that data from mobile apps, whether deployed on the premises or in the cloud, is not currently managed as part of an organisation's information infrastructure. What data that is collected from mobile apps is often siloed.

“Organisations should plan to manage information across cloud and on-premises implementations, as combining all data on the premises or on a single repository is no longer viable. It is important to understand the service-level agreements (SLAs) for various use cases that access mobile app data, and adapt the information capability accordingly,” said Edjlali.

For example, colocation of data from mobile apps with other application data on the premises can be a better option for use cases such as offline and near-line analysis. However, using data virtualisation to combine data in the cloud with data on the premises can be a better option if colocation does not suit the governance or SLAs of a use case. Using integration-platform-as-a-service capabilities for cloud service integration can complement existing data integration strategies by moving data from the cloud to the premises, or from cloud to cloud as needed.

More detailed analysis is available in the report "Adapt Your Information Infrastructure in the Age of Consumer-Centric Mobile Apps."