The MobileBeat conferences never disappoint and this summer’s event in San Francisco was no different.

I had the honor of joining two great mobile minds – Aaron Levie, CEO of Box.net, and Bob Tinker, CEO of MobileIron – on the panel, 'Enterprise Mobile Apps, Definitely Not Business as Usual.'

My perspective comes from the development of our mobile Office apps, which let users edit and manage files from their tablets or smartphones. Box.net is one of our cloud storage partners. The MobileIron team developed their Virtual Smartphone Platform to give IT professionals real-time intelligence and control over their mobile workforces’ content, activity and apps.

Together, we spoke about the evolving enterprise app market. Just one proof point, research firm Gartner predicts that 54.8 million tablets will be sold this year, with many of them being used as tools for enterprises. The broad utility of both mobile hardware and software has certainly reached the level where professionals across the enterprise are expected, in many ways, to be just as productive in the field and while away from the office as they are in the office.

Software, of course, is the key to enterprises truly embracing the mobile workforce. Box.net and other cloud storage providers have done much of the work by changing the notion of a four-walled office. Remote data storage has removed most of the IT barriers to mobile computing that many professionals were unable to overcome. And, enterprises are now beginning to roll out mobile computing on a larger scale.

Did you attend MobileBeat2011? What panel discussions did you find the most compelling and why?