With the annual cost of purchasing and managing software applications nearly four times the actual acquisition cost, organizations are clamoring for alternative approaches to mobile application deployment. Managed services provide just that alternative with their deployment flexibility and pricing variability over today’s largely fixed cost capital investment models. However, are they appropriate for mobile solutions? 

The answer is a definitive yes, according to recent research conducted by VDC Research. VDC polled 63 current enterprise mobility end users in February, 2009 about their current and planned use of managed services to support their mobility applications. Current mobile managed service users represented 27.1% of respondents with an additional 20.8% currently or planning to evaluate a managed service solution over the next 12 months.