Well I have to agree with you, a lot of people don’t think of us when they think about mobile but a lot of people don’t think about the underlying infrastructure that mobile requires. You know, everybody’s interested in the nice bright shiny phones but those phones are only an outlet for what typical IT architect might provide so we’re in about 170 of the top 198 service providers spaces. We touch about a billion mobile subscribers everyday with our software. The trends that we’re seeing are the enterprises now have realized they have to reach out to mobile devices. Mobile growth can’t be ignored anymore.

We can’t wait for it to happen. It’s happened with iPhones and iPads and Android and Blackberry, etc. So the time is now and most of our customers or a lot of customers are reaching out saying how do we get started and so the questions on everybody’s mind right now.

I think one of the biggest concerns that a lot people are going to have here is around security. In fact, I will say that that’s probably the biggest concern because if you look at the backbone of the architecture, you know I mentioned WebSphere App Server, SOA Services, etcetera you get the same enterprise notification services that you have already for SMF and VoiP and all of the other things that are on your backbone just now out to a new device. "What do I do with the secure information out there?" "What do I do with the confidential information now our employees are carrying these devices?"

That’s one of the main concerns that people are expressing to us. And you know we’ve got IBM Mobile Enterprise Services, it’s a group within IBM that’s exactly what they work on. They make sure that they’ve got tracking and monitoring of the real time devices. Statistics they know where the devices are and you can wipe and kill the devices and that’s really important.

Yeah you know I love IT architects by the way. I’m with IBM. When I saw where the growth is, it makes me smile for IBM but also for an architect. We looked out to 2015 and we looked at the grown and devices which will continue to grow, no doubt. Applications on the devices, that will continue to grow too, but if you look at the big growth, management and mobile infrastructure. And when I say mobile infrastructure, that’s the same as we’re already familiar with, not much different from what we’re already familiar with. Theirs, the numbers are like 41 percent compound growth for infrastructure and 37 percent for management. IT architects are the ones that have to do that. They’re not going to be a group of new mobile people that learn how to do infrastructure and management between now and 2015.

We’re going to rely on the existing IT architect to do that because they already know how to architect solutions. And this isn’t really that different than hey, we architected to the browser right, and now all of a sudden there’s a new let’s say, window into our services and it happens to be a phone.

No, it’s incremental. We look at it likes it’s totally different thing and it brings up a lot of fear in people’s hearts and minds when they think, oh now we have to go out to the mobile platform. But I’d welcome IT architects to look at this as an opportunity and say hey, I already know how to do a lot of this stuff, why don’t I work with somebody in my organization, find an app that we already have that would benefit from being mobile, dip our towel in the water, check it out, and the next thing you know, you can be the architect that’s a hero to your CEO or your CIO.

So it’s a great time for opportunity for the IT architect and there’s nothing to be afraid of. That’s the really good news.

Absolutely, I talk to an architect with a big insurance company and we were talking about what do they need in the field and we hooked up with an agent that was in the field carrying a mobile device and he was also carrying a clipboard. I said, whoa a clipboard. Today, 2010 seriously and so we realized what’s this person doing? Well they were thinking of carrying a lap top but they got that little fob sticking out the side and they were breaking them in the field, etc. So we said, whoa let’s look at something like the new iPad that’s out and all of the new tablets that are coming out. And we said let’s extend an app that he already is familiar with, the architect and put it out to that device.

And in a very short period of time, he’s running a prototype on top of an iPad and it wasn’t very hard. And right now that project is going forward and chances are he’ll become a hero and he took it upon himself to give it a try. I mean just think of a mobile solution happening without an IT architect and you’ll realize that’s impossible.