There is a large amount of personal technology in the workplace, presenting numerous problems. According to a recent Gartner report, organisations need to find a way for consumer technology and enterprise technology to work side by side, because employees forcefully expelling personal technology in the workplace face conflict, worker dissatisfaction and missed opportunities.
Gartner suggests a process of managed withdrawal from enterprise responsibility for managing and securing devices. Managed withdrawal requires a change in mindset for both employees and employers, says the report.
Three steps
Gartner lists three steps to the managed withdrawal process, finally concluding in the objective of "zero enterprise presence" on personal devices.
For step one, the enterprise has to decouple the applications from the hardware, using methods such as creating secure boundaries, creating parallel environments for enterprise and personal digital assets and re-engineering networks to treat internal connections as external.
Step two is a process of reviewing applications to reduce the digital footprint of the device. This can be done by determining which "local" applications are necessary or not, moving applications to a Web- or server-based delivery model and planned replacement for the applications that cannot be Web- or server-based.
The final step is the eventual withdrawal of the enterprise presence. This involves removing the last of the local applications and rationalisation of the enterprise footprint by removing tools, utilities, OS components and even some management agents.
* "Consumerisation of IT" is the theme of the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Africa 2007, which will be held from 27to 29 August at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
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