The mobile revolution is on. Mobile devices are launching like never before and, in the very-near-future, there will be more mobile devices per person than the number of desktops or laptops per person. What does that mean for growing businesses?
In one word: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). Here are some recent trends that you jolt your head up at and take notice:
The Rise of the mobile makes enterprises the polite, acquiescing bedfellows
One would come to expect a stall in the acceptance rate of the rise of the mobile revolution – an increasing tendency of business users to access, download, use, create, and transfer data through a range of mobile devices. That isn’t happening. According to a study conducted by Avanade involving more than 600 IT executives, a whopping 90% of them bring their own gadgets to work and 73% of the surveyed professionals report that managing their data, personal and corporate software, and using cloud services through their phone, a top priority each day.
Tablets and phones aren’t just about Apple, even though Apple is the uncontended leader
Don’t get us wrong here: we love apple, we swear by the iPad, and not a day passes when we don’t look at our Apple products and marvel at them. Let’s be honest though, Apple products are slightly more expensive. That’s where competition plays out. Blackberry, Samsung, Acer, and Dell – that’s only tablets. Let’s not even venture forth into listing the mobile device makers and the big three OS: Mac OS, Android, and Windows. For every budget, you have a phone or a tablet or both.
What stops the avalanche of usage? Absolutely nothing. Enterprises take note.
Even more need for security than ever
The general myth is that enterprises will soon find it difficult to manage this influx of device usage. As if the traditional network security management wasn’t enough, we have the cloud hovering us. Now, we have these little devices that juxtapose into the cloud and the traditional network or both – talk about IT management. Yet, businesses all over the world (starting from the western countries) will comply willingly. If analyst reports are anything to go by, ove 80% of the companies will make investments in security for personal or business mobile devices brought by the users for work.
Protecting business data on personal devices (BYOD) is your responsibility – not that of the users
One thing we can bet for sure: even though the devices that people bring to work can be a personal iPhone, Blackberry, or one of the many tablets, the corporate data accessed, the proprietary information that these devices will eventually come to contain, and the security risks that these devices will face are the responsibility of the organization. You can easily take preventive measures and secure data use and transfer. What you can’t stop, however, is the fact that the mobile revolution is on and happening as we speak.
How mobile are you?