While security around mobile devices is a constant issue, managing mobility in the workplace presents a much broader set of challenges, with IT departments and users alike agreeing that there is a support gap, according to a survey of 1,200 IT professionals by technology solutions provider CDW.
Asked to grade their organization’s IT policies and technical support, only 41 percent of individuals using personal devices at their job give IT an A or a B. IT professionals had a more positive view of the support they offer, with 64 percent giving their own departments an A or a B, yet only 18 percent said they deserved an A.
“Mobility has edged its way into the workplace, increasing and complicating IT’s workload, and often leading to frustration on all fronts. Securing devices, along with the data and networks they use, will always be a significant concern, but protecting users and employers is only one of five key aspects of mobility management at work,” Andrea Bradshaw, senior director and general manager of mobility solutions for CDW said in a statement. “The network impacts confirm that IT needs a systems strategy to accommodate mobility. Our research also shows that users and IT alike see room for improvement in the level and quality of support that IT provides for mobility today.”
Looking ahead, 90 percent of IT professionals surveyed expect growing use of personal mobile devices to have major impacts on their organizations’ networks, including increased bandwidth requirements (63 percent), increased network latency (39 percent) and increased server requirements (44 percent) and storage requirements (37 percent). Nearly four in 10 (39 percent) said they have already seen network performance suffer.
“Some of our research findings are remarkable, but they align with what we see and hear from our customers every day,” Bradshaw continued. “The reason organizations are not moving faster into mobility management solutions is that IT itself is working hard just to keep up with demand for more and more services with limited budgets, and mobility is a complex, multi-faceted challenge; it’s hard to know what to solve first. What IT needs itself is the support of a holistic, end-to-end approach that simplifies mobility management and reduces its cost in time and budget.”
The survey also revealed that despite ready availability of mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) solutions that can help IT by supporting and enforcing security policies, the survey found that only 37 percent of organizations have deployed or are deploying MDM, and just 36 percent have deployed or are deploying MAM solutions.