The 'consumerisation of IT' is a concept that's often discussed but rarely understood within the context of the business environment. Like many trends, it's been deliberated over extensively, but when the time finally comes to respond to the paradigm shift, decision-makers are left scratching their heads, wondering how to react.
That time is now.
In 2012, Gartner reported yet another bumper year for smartphone and tablet sales. According to the global information technology research firm, hardware vendors are expected to shift over one billion devices of this nature in 2013 - accounting for roughly 70% of total devices sold during the course of the year.
It's hardly surprising then that South Africans are beginning to demand access to corporate information on the devices they're most comfortable with. It's no longer enough to simply place a desktop PC at a workstation, pat an employee on the back and extend a welcoming remark. Employees want options, and those options must be mobile-friendly.
According to Gartner's Carolina Milanesi, tablets are the driving force behind this change in outlook.
"In 2016, two thirds of the mobile workforce will own a smartphone, and 40% of the workforce will be mobile. For most businesses, smartphones and tablets will not entirely replace PCs, but the ubiquity of smartphones and the increasing popularity of tablets are changing the way businesses look at their device strategies and the way consumers embrace devices."
At a high level, this kind of attitude demands two key components - cloud readiness and a robust 'bring your own device' (BYOD) corporate policy.
Sidestepping fragmentation
Many organisations are now consolidating internal cloud services following a 'rush' to the starting line that saw dozens of disparate offerings applied to data centres throughout the world.
In SA, one of the biggest inhibitors of cloud adoption has been sufficient access to bandwidth.
Although these efforts were intended to equip business with the tools required to take services into the cloud, the resulting fragmentation has created an environment that threatens the cross-platform access to information needed to meet BYOD demands head-on.
Fortunately, restricted access to high-speed connectivity stymied local adoption of cloud technology, giving South African organisations the benefit of hindsight without misdirected investment, says Heino Gevers, security specialist at cloud-focused e-mail management group, Mimecast.
"In South Africa, one of the biggest inhibitors of cloud adoption has been sufficient access to bandwidth. As a result, cloud fragmentation is not as significant an issue for local businesses in the sense that our service providers are fairly integrated."
HP SA's Printing and Personal Systems country manager, Thibault Dousson, agrees.
"We as South Africans were protected when cloud services came to market. Bandwidth limitations and uncertainty on which strategies to apply it meant businesses haven't had to battle the fragmentation of cloud environments.
"Locally speaking, we're still at the beginning of widespread cloud adoption. This creates an opportunity for South African businesses to give employees access to sensitive corporate information on the device of their choosing via the cloud environment."
Trust over technology
Although local business may be well placed to implement cloud strategies that facilitate BYOD, IT executives must be willing to give employees the power to access corporate data on any device.
According to Gevers, the risk associated with being unwilling to do so is significant.
Are you willing to empower your employees? I think that's the biggest question.
"Trends show that if a staff member desires remote access to corporate information, they will find a way around the problem. Be it a forwarding command from an Outlook mailbox to a Gmail account, or something else, employees will likely implement a solution that is at odds with internal governance policy."
The answer lies in giving staff a secure portal into the corporate domain on any device via a consolidated platform that's internally monitored.
"IT executives should be asking how they can accommodate users while protecting intellectual property. Employees don't want to be policed; they want the convenience of access to information anywhere, at any time. For organisations, the answer lies in the adoption of a consolidated, device-agnostic cloud platform and openness to BYOD," adds Gevers.
According to HP's Dousson, it's trust - not the availability of technology - that is the major obstacle to BYOD adoption.
First published in May 2013 edition of ITWeb's Brainstorm magazine.
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