The VAR Guy

Cisco Systems, in an effort to push the Cius tablet deeper into the enterprise, has released the results of a “global IT survey” that shows enterprise customers are excited about tablet technology. But those very same customers are also wary about adopting tablets before a few certain needs are met. Here’s what Cisco is saying the IT tablet landscape looks like …

First, the boring details. Redshift Research surveyed 1500 IT managers and executives across the United States and Canada, with the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany. The survey, which was commissioned by Cisco, asked IT respondents “to assess attitudes, fears and hopes” for how tablet technology fits into their business paradigm.

Among the key findings, IT departments have a 1:3 ratio on requests for tablets to smartphones, with 21 percent of companies in the United States and France say their workforce is requesting to use tablets. Unsurprisingly, security was a major concern, with with three-quarters of U.S. IT managers noting new device usage would require new rules to maintain security compliance. What’s more, 50 percent of respondents are looking for restricted application access on tablets, and IT managers “universally agree” that custom applications are where real business efficiency will blossom.

Here are a few other interesting tidbits direct from the survey:

• Globally, 48 percent said their company would never authorize employees to bring their own devices (BYOD), yet 57 percent agreed that some employees use personal devices without consent.
• Fifty-one percent of the respondents reported the number of employees bringing their own devices to work is on the rise.
• Using personal devices without consent was highest in the United States (64 percent) and lowest in Germany (49 percent).
• Access to company servers was highlighted as a “huge problem” of the BYOD phenomena as was lost/stolen devices (64 percent globally).
• Overall, 44 percent say that handling BYOD issues diverts IT attention from other important projects.

The Cisco angle here is simple: Cisco not only has the tablet you need, but has everything else you need to go with it, from a special App HQ store to the networking infrastructure to manage and maintain the device. But obviously, that’s not the only solution to the problem.

Mobile device management offerings are showing up from a multitude of vendors, including Sophos, Symantec and more. The bottom line we can take from this survey is that there probably isn’t a single company not interested in developing some kind of mobile strategy, whether it’s now or in the near future. The channel has a unique opportunity to get in while the getting is good and be a trusted adviser, giving their customers the right tablets, the right apps and the right infrastructure, eliminating the time IT departments waste through BYOD troubleshooting.

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