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Study: Most Orgs Not Using Mobile Device Management
Just 36 percent of IT organizations surveyed had fully deployed or are deploying mobile device management solutions, according to a CDW-commissioned study, announced on Monday.
Meanwhile, the IT professionals surveyed in the study expect that the demands of mobile devices on their networks will continue to grow. They expected that mobile device access would double over the next two years. The study was carried out by O'Keeffe & Co. for CDW, which sells a Total Mobility Management solution. It was split between a survey of 1,200 IT pros conducted in April and a survey of 1,200 mobile device users conducted in January.
"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," said Andrea Bradshaw, senior director and general manager for mobility solutions at CDW, in a released statement.
Mobile device users weren't particularly happy about the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) support they were getting from the IT department in the workplace, with 41 percent giving a grade of "A or B" to the organization's effectiveness. However, IT pros thought better of their efforts, with 64 percent giving themselves an "A or B" grade for BYOD support effectiveness.
The study found a bit of a communication gap. Only 51 percent of IT pros talk with employees about how they use their mobile devices to access the network.
IT pros are mostly using just simple measures to provide security for BYOD networks. Most (76 percent) provide guidelines to employees on accessing the network, while 69 percent require a password. A lock screen is enforced by 42 percent.
Just 24 percent of IT pros provide location tracking to secure mobile devices. Only 22 percent of IT pros put restrictions on the applications that can be installed by employees.
Mobile device users seem to be mostly comfortable or neutral about IT pro management of their personal devices. However, half (50 percent) indicated that they were "uncomfortable" with IT pros being involved in application management. It's not clear why.
The top challenges for IT pros in addressing BYOD access include "securing data on personal devices (55%), securing network access (54%) and network performance (39%)," according to the study. IT pros expect to see network impacts from BYOD, such as increased bandwidth and increased server requirements, among others.
As might be expected, the study advocates the use of an mobile device management solution as its conclusion. CDW's 18-page report can be accessed at this page.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.