Ending the Tyranny of False Network Connectivity Assumptions

You can’t always connect to a network. Some have done better with that reality than others.

Microsoft desktop software assumes the user is connected to the network. I’ve been on a 100% travel schedule for years at a time, so the assumption of full-time network connection seems outlandishly wishful. I’ve found Outlook particularly offensive in this regard. After years of trying to get used to it, I still want to return to Lotus Notes Mail, which was designed with a traveler like me in mind.

Verizon’s VZAccess Manager and AT&T’s Communication Manager have provided good data network connections for the significant amounts of time between hotel rooms and offices. Airlines such as AirTran now offer connections while in flight. The only problem is that the assumptions about connectivity require more bandwidth than these services generally deliver.

I don’t hold it against developers who build assumptions into their software based on a future expectation of infrastructure. I understand that as much as I do travel, many others do most of their work from an office with a lot of reliable bandwidth. At the same time, there is a large and growing community of mobile people like me who have been forced to improvise and scramble to use software designed with us as an afterthought.

There is new hope that the tyranny of false network connectivity assumptions may come to an end. It comes from “desktop” and social networking applications accessed via mobile devices such as Blackberry and iPhone.

I wanted to see Matt Coblentz’s presentation of CenterStage Mobile Client at EMC World last week, but schedule conflicts prevented it. I saw Matt in the corridor later and he showed me something more convincing. He demonstrated on the spot that he is already using CenterStage Mobile Client with his Blackberry Bold. I am not a bleeding edge technology adapter. Relative to others in the industry, I am a laggard, but not this time. I’ve seen CenterStage Mobile Client in action. It’s a real productivity enhancer. It will work with my existing Blackberry, and I want it.

That answers one of the questions posed in last week’s post, and here are the others:

Q: Does CenterStage provide the end user functionality that users and businesses will readily adopt?
A: This is highly addictive functionality. Once users get their hands on it, they won’t want to let it go.

Q: Does CenterStage fully deliver the back end capabilities of Documentum Content Server?
A: In theory yes, CenterStage delivers the backend functionality. It’s a good bet that this theory will be proven in fact, because all CenterStage content is being stored in CenterStage.

Q: Does CenterStage have the flexibility to allow enterprises to centralize or decentralize administrative responsibilities? To the extent administrative responsibilities are decentralized, does CenterStage allow safeguards to keep departmental administrators within bounds of enterprise policies?
A: CenterStage is looking good in this regard. Initial deployments will prove it out, but this seems like another low risk bet.

Q: Does CenterStage have an advantage in accelerating mobile computing applications?
A: This is the real surprise behind CenterStage. I didn’t think this question was going to have the most exciting answer, but it does. If you’re a mobile professional you can see an end to the tyranny of false assumptions about connectivity.