Choose your own device (CYOD) adoption is set to grow in Australia next year because of security concerns about uncontrolled bring your own device (BYOD) in the workplace, according to 2014 telecommunications predictions from IDC Australia.
Speaking at a briefing in Sydney, IDC Australia telecommunications research director Graham Barr told delegates that a survey carried out in Asia Pacific and Japan earlier this year with IT professionals found 57 per cent of Australian respondents were worried about rampant BYOD.
“Businesses are concerned about staff accessing corporate data using apps that they have downloaded off the Internet. This could open up quite a significant security hole, especially if the device gets lost and someone finds it,” he said.
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According to Barr, the increasing mobility of employees has been “accidental” rather than a planned business strategy.
“This has meant a poor return on investment and costs to the organisation rather than generating productivity.”
This is due to the increased cost of supporting those devices, installing security software on them and an increase in bandwidth as more staff use the corporate network to access Facebook or download YouTube videos.
Barr said that CYOD is a better option as organisations can manage devices better.
“The IT department can define a clear mobility strategy, secure some of the applications and data by containerisation and wipe corporate data if the device is lost,” he said.
In addition, IDC is predicting the rise of the director of mobility, a senior executive who will manage the company’s mobility strategy across marketing, internal productivity and supplier relationships.
“The opportunity for [mobility] vendors is to work with companies and provide mobility strategy resources,” he said.
The Internet of Things
Turning to another IDC prediction, Barr discussed the Internet of Things (IoT) and its adoption in industries such as resources.
“Logistics management is clearly growing at an enormous rate. Companies like Linfox are using devices to track their trucks on the road or to understand their employee’s driving habits," he said.
“Within the resources sector, there are innovations like driverless trucks and using the IoT to monitor flow rates on conveyor belts.”
According to Barr, the IoT will have an impact on cloud computing due to the amount of data generated by each device. According to an IDC forecast, there will be 212 billion IoT devices worldwide by 2020.
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