If you’ve read the news about Apple’s success lately, you probably realized that, ready or not, Macs are coming to your organization.

And the 2M unit run rate of iPads means that those Macs will be joined by iPhones, iPads and iPods. And by phones, tablet computers and new form factors running new Linux derived OSes such as Android, HP/Palm WebOS devices and Samsung Bada OS. And by lots of other computers that may or may not be owned by your organization and not always controlled by IT.

Your colleagues and customers who own all of these new devices will want to use your LAN, wireless and Internet connections, and many will want to access IT services such as e-mail, file servers, intranets, printers and more.

The good news is that everything is going to be just fine. There are tools from many vendors, including the Enterprise Desktop Alliance members, that can help you handle this new complexity and maintain the quality of service and security that your organization expects.

Why are things different now? It’s a perfect storm combining the pace of technology, the demands of our post-recession, lean staffed, globally connected businesses, and the ever growing mastery of technology of our population.

You do need a plan. And helpful vendors like us who know how to wrangle these potentially unruly interlopers into acceptably domesticated, productive tools for your colleagues and customers.

The Enterprise Desktop Alliance wants to help by providing you with information on issues and solutions and even on the trends themselves. We conducted a market survey in June 2010 to get an accurate count on how many of these new devices have been adopted and are expected to be roaming the halls of your organization and others like yours. When we publish the results of this data later this summer, it will help all of us size the trends that we’re all seeing and that we began to quantify in our desktop management survey earlier this year.

Over the next few months, EDA members will post a series on best practices that will help you prepare for and manage this new multi-OS world. We encourage you to read, comment and engage us about issues that concern you. Please email us at info@enterprisedevicealliance.org to comment, inquire and recommend.

Reid Lewis
- President, Enterprise Desktop Alliance
- President, Group Logic