Trend Micro Consumerization Report 2011

An increasing number of organizations take a strategic approach to Consumerization by providing IT support for personal devices and by deploying new IT tools to secure and manage them.

This online survey was conducted in June 2011 in the U.S., Germany and Japan among IT personnel responsible for endpoint operational management and/or messaging and collaboration operations. Respondents needed to be part of an organization with at least 500 employees worldwide. A total of 600 surveys were collected equally distributed across countries and industry verticals.

Consumerization reaches the tipping point

Data shows that the majority of companies surveyed already allow employees to use their personal devices for work-related activities. On an aggregate, 56% of the

respondents say yes to Consumerization as end-users favor personal devices because easier to use, more convenient and allow them to mix personal and work. While the trend is clearly affecting organizations worldwide, not all regions have adapted at the same pace: the U.S. already lead this innovation with 75% of yes, the more conservative Japan is on the raise with 36% and Germany somewhere in between with 59%. From an industry vertical perspective, Education (80%), Health Care (69%) and Business Services (67%) are the most consumerized industries while Manufacturing (48%), Government (39%) and Utilities (36%) are slower at embracing consumer technology. Company size doesn’t seem to be a discriminating factor although mid-large organizations show higher adoption rates, up to 65% for companies with 1,500 employees.

A strategic approach to Consumerization starts with providing IT support to personal devices

31% of the mobile devices connecting to the corporate network are owned by the employees in organizations that open up to consumerization: 66% are laptops, 25% smartphones and 9% are tablets. Considering that consumer smartphones and tablets are likely to run non-standard operating systems – such as Android and Apple iOS – Taking a strategic approach to consumerization starts with providing IT support to these employees for their personal devices when used for work related activities. The majority of the organizations (59%) already provide full or limited support: within the IT department, Security Teams (37%) are the most likely to provide this kind of service, Help Desk (24%) and Endpoint Management (23%) are quite common while some organizations also have dedicated Mobility Teams (14%.

New IT tools reduce security risks and management costs

Security (64%) and data loss (59%) remain top concerns for most companies allowing employees to bring their personal devices in the workplace. Compliance and legal implications are greater concern in the U.S. and Japan than in Germany. To reduce security risks and to lower management costs, 79% of respondents require employees to install mobile security solutions on their personal mobile devices. 69% of respondents agreed that mobile device security is a key component in protecting their IT environments from employee-owned mobile devices while 71% of respondents consider a combination of mobile security and mobile device management to be the most effective.

Feel free to contact me if you are interested in receiving a free copy of the complete report including a list of the 44 questions, a breakdown by country and a set of 14 data charts.

More on BYOD and Consumerization at Trend Micro Consumerization Blog