Enterprise Mobility is on the Rise but Security Awareness Lags

A global study produced by IDC uncovers a few interesting pieces of information one of which was expected, but another of which was quite surprising. First here is a little back ground on the study. The survey spanned 9 countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, United States and France) with a total of 455 participants through both phone interviews and web survey responses. CIOs and IT Managers responsible for decision making, budgets and strategy provided information regarding their current mobile environments and drivers that will be influencing and impacting future investment in mobile solutions and strategies.

As stated before this, what seems to be, comprehensive study of individuals entrenched in enterprise mobility revealed a few important pieces of information. First, the study showed that significant portions of company’s investment plans will be targeted at rolling out mobile devices to employees in 65 percent of survey participants. This is the piece of information that we were expecting. Executive are realizing the impact that smart phones and tablets can have on their work force. Improvements in employee productivity, communication, access to information and satisfaction have been reported and we are seeing mobile devices enter the enterprise in waves.

The second highlight that the study uncovered is a bit more surprising to us. Apparently of the 65 percent of companies indicating increased investment in mobile devices that only seven percent said they planned on readdressing security policies and looking into management solutions such as Mobile Device Management (MDM). Quite frankly that sounds like a recipe for disaster to us. Yes, if used correctly mobile devices can improve employee productive, communication and access to critical information but they also bring inherent risks and threat that need to be addressed. More devices mean more access, but they also mean more points of threat through data leakage, malware and even lost or stolen devices due to their size and mobility.

Mobility management solutions such as MDM need to be considered as enterprise mobility increases, and to a larger point a company’s entire security and policy strategy need to be reconsidered. In a recent release by IFS (study sponsor) they quotes IDC Program Director Jason Andersson as saying “Considering the rapidly increasing amount of business data that is accessed through mobile devices, it is noteworthy that only seven per cent state that MDM will be the focus of their strategic investments. Clearly, security awareness among companies needs to be improved as we are becoming increasingly mobile.” Click here to read the entire release and for more on the IDC study