AWS reports another quarter of solid growthAmazon Web Services (AWS), the commerce giant's public cloud offering, controls 45% of the global infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) market, according to new Q3 2016 data from Synergy Research.
IaaS refers to the public cloud computing services that allow companies to build, operate, and store software and data in off-site, third-party data centers. AWS' lead comes despite rapid growth from competitors Microsoft and Google, further demonstrating the company's entrenched dominance in the public cloud industry. 
Although IaaS remains the largest segment of the three main cloud segments, including public platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and managed private cloud — wherein businesses buy and self-maintain private space within public cloud infrastructure — PaaS is growing at a much faster click. Synergy Research Group estimates that sub-segments of public PaaS, such as database, IoT, and analytics, are all growing by more than 100% YoY.   
AWS, Microsoft, and Google will continue to rule over the public cloud market, thanks to their huge budgets for data-center development. These companies are able to provide and support the level of scale businesses desire when looking for a public cloud vendor and are rapidly expanding their global footprints. This will make it harder for smaller players to compete at the same level, leading to continued consolidation, partnerships, and pivoting focus to other areas of the cloud market. For instance, VMware recently partnered with AWS to sustain relevance in the public cloud market. The company attempted to build its own public cloud offering in the US and Europe in 2013 but found the market too competitive to stake a meaningful claim, according to Enterprise Tech.
Mobile security is also key for the enterprise sector. Employees are increasingly using their mobile devices to complete work tasks remotely — whether their employer wants them to or not. Mobile devices allow employees to answer emails, schedule meetings, and complete other tasks on the go.
Though this practice is great for productivity, it could expose enterprise data and applications that are stored on employees' devices to hackers. We expect mobile workers — employees who use mobile devices in their work — to comprise 72% of the US workforce in 2021, up from 65% in 2016.
BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on enterprise mobile security that examines the rising security threats from employee use of mobile devices. It also details the policies that enterprises can implement to provide secure access to company information through employees' mobile devices, as well as the challenges in enforcing these policies. Lastly, it explains different types of solutions and offers best practices that can help enterprises keep their networks and data secure amid rising enterprise mobility activity.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
  • Enterprise mobility is on the rise. We expect mobile workers to comprise 72% of the US workforce in 2021.
  • The number of malicious programs launched by hackers to target mobile is rising exponentially, and malware targeting mobile is becoming more sophisticated.
  • Despite the security risks, companies are increasingly moving to Bring Your Own (BYO) device and app strategies for employees. These strategies improve employee satisfaction, but complicate enterprise security. 
  • Enterprises are still struggling with several basic challenges in securely implementing BYO policies. Companies need to allow employees a fair amount of flexibility in how they use mobile devices for work so they don't bypass basic company security policies. 
  • Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions provide tools for monitoring employee devices or apps and ensuring that enterprise data can't be stolen off a device.
  • Aside from using software management tools, implementing best practices can also make BYO policies much less risky from a security standpoint. Enterprises should train employees about cybersecurity threats and gather early input from security teams.
  • In the future, the data that enterprise mobile applications will access will increasingly reside in the cloud