Buried Alive by Consumer Applications in the Workspace

An article in GigaOM citing new research by Unisys on the consumerization of IT recently piqued my interest.   According to the research, IT pros underestimate the use of consumer technologies in the workplace by a whopping 50%.  In fact, IT decision-makers gave themselves a rating of only 2.9 for overall support of employee owned mobile devices, social applications and integration of social apps with enterprise applications.  According to Isabella Mark, director of Global Solution Management at Unisys, IT is falling behind in addressing and benefiting from consumer technologies due to the sheer volume they now have to deal with.  Each new technology that employees bring into the workplace is another technology that IT needs to figure out how to use, manage, or perhaps even ban.

For many, Dropbox represents the poster child for the consumerization of IT.  Free and easy to get your hands on, the Dropbox consumer file sharing app has spread like wild fire through organizations.  And now IT and security teams are grappling with how to deal with the security risks of unmanaged, untracked file sharing of enterprise data via personal Dropbox accounts.  Learn more about the privacy concerns of consumer file sharing apps that stem from the consumerization of IT in our latest whitepaper, “Beyond Dropbox: Requirements of Enterprise Class Secure File Sharing.”  While Accellion’s solutions are enterprise-class, they are created for ease-of-use, and also provide the security and management that IT requires.

Stillman, J. (2011, November 18). Consumerization study: It pros swamped, behind on mobile. Retrieved fromhttp://gigaom.com/collaboration/consumerization-study-it-pros-swamped-behind-on-mobile/

Nina Seth - Product Marketing Manager at Accellion.