The Technology Headline Mag8 Final9

TOP 20 LEADING IoT SOLUTION PROVIDERS
to support these Shadow IT initiatives instead of driving them even further underground.
You can’t win a guerrilla war against Shadow IT. But you can absolutely use
it as a guide to understand employee grievances and give them the right solutions.
A good example is the use of personal cloud services by employees to store their
corporate data. IT will never have full security control over a personal document
storage app. However, a more inclusive and useful approach can be benificial.
Separating the security method from the storage location allows documents to
remain secure regardless of their location. This will help minimize the issues of
Shadow IT as it allows staff to choose whatever IT service they need while mitigating
the potential hazards of unregulated software. If employees are able to make the
most of consumer technology and still guard against the threat of data loss, they
should be allowed to do so.
Forward-thinking CIOs harness Shadow IT
The use of consumer apps outside of company policies is just the tip of the mobile
iceberg. We are seeing a shift away from the traditional PC-based enterprise towards a
Mobile First organization, in which all core business processes are available on-the-go.
This model is centered on, and must support, the behavior of the employee. The user
experience must be fantastic, and employees must be able to choose with device,
operating system, or app best fit their needs. The security model is also very different.
As a result, the CIO focused on lock-down as the core of the IT security model.
Modern mobile operating systems are much more secure and user demands for
The use of consumer
apps outside of
company policies is
just the tip of the
mobile iceberg
new apps are much greater. As a result, the
CIO must adopt a security model than enables
user choice instead of one that restricts it.
The statistics indicate that that consumerization
is not a passing trend, and the breadth of
consumer technologies available to employees
will only increase. Those that fight
Shadow IT will see that battle only become
harder. Now is the time for the forward-thinking
CIO to harness Shadow IT for the good of
the organization and evolve it from a
nightmare to a powerful tool for employee
productivity.
-36- October 2016