Mobility and Consumerization Are Birds of a Feather — Quick Take

The unthinkable for some IT departments is happening right before their eyes and there’s little they can do to stop it: Users are bringing their own devices into the corporate network.

If you haven’t given thought to a solid BYOD plan yet, you might understandably worry about the security and compliance implications. Some might argue, “Well, if users want mobility, why don’t they just use company-provided mobile devices?” Because, they don’t wanna.

It may sound childish, but users are going to use the mobile devices that they’re most comfortable using. And if they can get away with having to carry only one smartphone rather than two, they will.

Gartner Fellow Mark P. McDonald explores the symbiotic relationship between mobility and IT consumerization further in a post for the Gartner blog. He urges IT workers to embrace the trend, rather than fight it.

While it’s possible to keep [mobility and IT consumerization] apart, I believe in recognizing that those looking for consumerization are also looking for mobility. There is little difference between the two and creating effective solutions to both comes from re-imagining IT’s role in ways that see consumerization as a complementary rather than competing technology.

Read more about mobility and IT consumerization in McDonald’s post on the Gartner blog.

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