Decision makers in business may have to consider more than one policy or measure in their future BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) strategies. According to a report by Juniper Research, by the year 2018 there is expected to be more than 1 billion employee-owned mobile devices in the enterprise.
This figure represents approximately 35% of the total installed base of consumer-owned tablets and smartphones. Technology executives have referred to an IDC statistic which claims that by the year 2020, third platform technologies (mobile, cloud, social and big data) will make up 80% of all IT spending compared with 20% in 2011.
The adoption of mobile technology in Africa warrants consideration of what experts have called ‘three absolutes’ – technology must be manageable, secure and reliable.
Juniper’s report Mobile Security: BYOD, mCommerce, Consumer & Enterprise 2013 – 2018, has found that whilst organisations can benefit from BYOD, employee satisfaction and productivity being two advantages, there is a very real threat from unprotected employee mobile devices.
Businesses should view mobile devices as “just another endpoint” and formulate actions and steps to mitigate the challenges and the risks of managing a multi-platform environment, suggests the research company.
While the mobile security market is being driven by the enterprise market segment, with BYOD and mobile device management being strategic influencers, Juniper predicts growth in revenue for security software – “approaching 40% of the global mobile security sales revenue by the end of 2018.”
