Editor’s Note: With 2014 now upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from leading industry analysts and executives on what they expect to see in the new year.
With the growth of data and devices rising exponentially, we’ve found ourselves in a world in which the idea of containerization – allowing users to separate their work and personal data within one device – has become more important. According to Gartner, 70% of mobile professionals will conduct their work on personal smart devices by 2018.
But this does not necessarily mean that work will go back to being conducted on one device. In fact, employees will soon need to toggle between working on a personal smartphone, the company’s laptop and, quite possibly, a tablet. Companies will need to provide seamless transitions as well as strong security. History has shown us that the consumerization of IT and virtualization is causing a breakdown in security protocols, so as the use of personal smart devices increases, the industry needs a solution that will allow employees to access data easily, while also keeping security at an all-time high.
Allowing employees to access data easily is key here. When choosing between ease and security, it is safe to say that most people will choose ease, so creating a security protocol that is difficult to work with on a smartphone or tablet is a surefire way to have employees to bypass them. Ease-of-use, and therefore security, has been reliant upon the type of device that the employee is using, until now.
Employees don’t care where their data lives, as long as it is accessible and secure. Enterprises realize that they need to keep pace with their employees or risk security breaches. They have been turning to their “bring-your-own-device” vendors to address this problem, who are now focused on delivering a secure experience within a device, no matter which device it may be.
In 2013, Samsung unveiled their version of a built-in containerized application, Samsung KNOX, which allows users to switch between devices easily, without worrying about compromising proprietary information. Although Samsung has led the pack in enterprise BYOD, other vendors have been slow to unveil such a comprehensive solution, and I see 2014 as the year when many announce solutions built using a formula similar to Samsung.
And as with anything, as we figure out the solution to one problem, another will inevitably pop up. In 2014, wearables are going to become more and more mainstream as companies like Google, Samsung and – reportedly – Apple make smart glasses and smart watches part of people’s everyday lives. Just as laptops, smartphones and tablets have done, wearable technologies will soon begin permeating the enterprise, creating a new BYOD frontier with new policies, new platforms and new security measures.
2014 is promising to be an exciting year as the consumerization of IT continues to boom and companies continue to rise to the challenge of finding the best way to manage and secure it all, and I cannot wait to be a part of it.
Tom Kemp is co-founder and CEO of Centrify Corporation, a software and cloud security provider that delivers solutions that centrally control, secure and audit access to on-premise and cloud-based systems, applications and devices. Under his leadership Centrify has become one of the fastest growing security vendors in the industry and has amassed over 5,000 customers including nearly 50% of the Fortune 50. Prior to Centrify, Kemp held various executive, technical and marketing roles at NetIQ Corporation, Compuware Corporation, EcoSystems Software and Oracle Corporation. Kemp was also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Mayfield, a leading venture capital firm. He is an avid blogger on both the Centrify website and for Forbes.com. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and in history from the University of Michigan.
