Companies focus on mobile device rollout, overlooking security: IFS study

Friday, 12 April 2013 03:31 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

According to a global study by IDC, sponsored by IFS the global enterprise applications company, 65% of businesses will focus their investments in mobility on rolling out smartphones and tablets. However, only 7% state, that they will invest in Mobile Device Management (MDM) in the coming three years.

The survey shows that the rollout of mobile devices to employees, dominates company investment plans. While 65% of the respondents chose smartphones and tablets, only 7% will improve security and policy management by investing in MDM.

The IDC survey identifies MDM as a key component of mobility solutions for handling security, policy and integration to back-office systems.

“Without a robust MDM solution, it will be nearly impossible to secure a mobile device and enable a full or partial wipe in case of theft or loss of the device,” IDC program Director Jason Andersson said.

“Considering the rapidly increasing amount of business data that is accessed through mobile devices, it is noteworthy that only 7% state, MDM will be the focus of their strategic investments. Clearly, security awareness among companies needs to be improved as we are becoming increasingly mobile.”

“MDM may support remote management of an installed base of devices such as locking users into a kiosk mode or wiping data from a stolen or lost device,” IFS Research and Strategy Director Martin Gunnarsson said.

“However, security also entails cloud solutions where strong built-in security ensures that all communications are encrypted and that no corporate data or user passwords are stored in the cloud. In certain industries, it is even prohibited to send classified information from the back-end business software to a mobile device,” Gunnarsson added.