The rapid proliferation of consumer mobile devices is changing the traditional IT environment in enterprises, as 90% of enterprises have already deployed mobile devices, with smartphones being most widely deployed, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. 86% of enterprises surveyed said that they plan to deploy media tablets this year.
“Healthy growth in smartphone and media tablet shipments over the next five years will enable a much higher level of IT consumerization than is currently possible,” said Chae-Gi Lee, Research Director, Gartner. “Enterprises should recognize this and look to mobile enable their IT infrastructure for employees to meet the growing demand for mobile device use in the enterprise IT environment.”
A further impact of consumerization is the proliferation of BYOD in enterprises. Gartner’s survey found that many enterprises are allowing personal mobile devices to connect to the enterprise network. BYOD demand was higher in the BRIC countries where more Generation Y (Gen Y) employees are working. With the proliferation of BYOD, there are many security issues for enterprises to consider before they invest in mobile computing. According to the survey, the top issues were the ‘use of privately owned devices’ and the ‘deployment of new enterprise mobile platforms’. Enterprises should focus on Mobile Data Protection (MDP), Network Access Control (NAC) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) tools to support their BYOD and new enterprise mobile platform efforts. These technology factors are essential to establish a standard mobile platform for enterprises.
Many of the enterprises surveyed indicated that they provide technical support for personal devices — 32% of smartphones, 37% of tablets and 44% of laptops. However, the results around technical support varied significantly between regions, with 28% of respondents in non-BRIC countries receiving technical support for connecting personal devices versus 44% in BRIC countries.
“Mature countries consider BYOD programs as bringing with them both legal and technical issues, whereas emerging countries only see technical issues. For instance, mature regions are more concerned with security and data privacy regulations for immature MDM than emerging regions,” said Lee. “In BRIC countries, employee turnover can be high in some sectors, leading to more theft of devices and data. BYOD and virtualization can reduce those enterprise losses.”
Respondents came from organizations with 500 or more employees and an in-house data center in the United States; the United Kingdom; Germany; Australia; Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC); and Japan. The survey was conducted in October through November of 2011. The survey centered on the deployment status of, and plans for mobile device adoption; bring your own device (BYOD) policy; and investment in data centers and adopting technology drivers, including hosted virtual desktop (HVD) for enterprise mobility.
