Amazon Fire in the Enteprise? Don’t Rule it Out Yet

At first blush the Amazon Fire phone caters solely towards the consumer with innovative access for buying through the Amazon Prime Service, but will IT departments have to start looking out for Fire in the workplace? A quick recap on the Amazon Fire from ZDNet shows that it is certainly a possibility we might see a few of these devices in the hands of employees with an affinity for online shopping.

The Amazon Fire comes shipped with integration enterprise support ranging from MDM API capability to device encryption and access to Office Suite applications. While we are sure that we will not see a flood of these devices in the enterprise anytime soon and the enterprise market is certainly not a coveted target for Amazon, let’s not forget that the iPhone was never initially intended for the enterprise with its consumer facing interface. We all know how that has turned out with reports of nearly 70% off all enterprise mobile devices being iOS devices.

The current enterprise mobility environment is truly being established by the consumerization of IT. Programs like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) of Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) are becoming more and more common in the enterprise. The consumer/employee is identifying, selecting and almost defining how an enterprise’s mobile strategy and environment is being shaped as they call for more preference and convenience in the technology they use be productive and get their work done. With that said it is not entirely outlandish to say that one day Amazon may be sharing a percentage of enterprise device usage with the likes of iOS and Android if they can corner the consumer market.

Here is a quick excerpt from the ZDNet article that outlines the Amazon Fire’s integrated enterprise support.

1. MDM API: These APIs allow for integration with leading mobile device management (MDM) systems including AirWatch, MobileIron, Good Technology, and Fiberlink MaaS360.
2. Device encryption: AES 128 bit key encryption of the data stored on the device using Exchange ActiveSync, MDM or the UI.
3. VPN: Support for popular VPN clients via the Amazon Appstore.
4. Office apps: Ships with an Office Suite application that lets customers view Office documents. Customers can download the Pro version of Office Suite from the Amazon Appstore to edit office documents.
5. Appstore: Many of the most popular enterprise apps, including Cisco, Intuit and Citrix are available in the Amazon Appstore.

Click here to read the full piece from ZDNet.