Mobility will carve up IT landscape this year

A recent Network World was anything but subtle in predicting the impact enterprise mobility will have on IT departments as 2012 kicks into high gear. According to Ann Bednarz, employee use of smartphones and tablets - consumer-based devices in many cases - will lead to "mayhem."

"Two complementary trends - the meteoric adoption of the mobile devices and the increasing use of personal smartphones and tablets for business purposes - are further disrupting the IT status quo and driving new investments," she wrote for the news provider.

For much of this year, Bednarz added, companies will be tackling the issue of how to best incorporate and support employee-owned smartphones and tablets. Mobile device management programs will be tasked with allowing for the access required by employees, while still protecting the company's network, data and investments in the practice.

However, it appears that many organizations are falling short of such standards. In citing a recent survey conducted by the Enterprise Device Alliance - an industry organization focused on mobility - 66 percent of respondents allow at least some employees to bring technology from home and lend at least minimal support to such smartphones and tablets.

However, the alliance's poll also found that just 16 percent of respondents said their company uses an MDM solution, Bednarz reported. But that percentage is expected to climb to about half of companies by the end of 2012.

Perhaps that's because more companies will begin to feel the consumerization crunch as more employee-owned technology begins showing up in the workplace.

"Enterprises are grappling with how to incorporate employees' mobile devices into existing corporate technology infrastructures," Bednarz wrote. Given the results of the Enterprise Device Alliance, it appears that investment in MDM solutions and practices is the way to go for many organizations.

According to a recent CIO Magazine report, there are several other mobility management approaches that companies should be taking into consideration when dealing with a BYOD program. For example, mobile application management is becoming increasingly important as employees download both personal and enterprise apps onto a single device.

Companies must ensure that security practices are upheld when employees obtain new apps, regardless of their intended use. In doing so, they will protect the network and data, as well as investments in mobility.