When most companies think about the devices used in bring-your-own-device (BYOD) practices, the gadgets they talk about are either iOS or Android-based. This leads to the great debate of which platform makes the most sense for companies to invest in.
Citrix – a business cloud and virtualization provider – attempted to answer that question in a recent survey. According to the report, 58 percent of all devices enrolled in its enterprise mobility services in the fourth quarter of 2012 were running on the iOS platform. In North America, Apple holds a 63 percent market share, compared to Android's 35 percent and Windows' 3 percent.
While Apple is gaining more steam in the enterprise, whatever route tech decision makers choose, the security concerns that mobile devices bring are still front and center.
"This report underlines the growing pressure on IT departments to monitor the complexity of all these proprietary platforms to ensure the business still has some measure of control, or risk complexity, confusion and opening their network to the threat of malicious attack," the report reads.
The survey found that there are several ways companies are protecting data. Topping the list, in use by 63 percent of companies, is a mandatory passcode system, followed by GPS, which is used by 39 percent of respondents. Thirty-two percent are also taking the path of restricting or blacklisting certain applications like Facebook, Dropbox and Angry Birds.
The implementation of mobile devices into many commercial enterprises is becoming business standard. However, it takes much more than just buying gadgets and connected them to a network for them to run effectively. With the help of an IT consulting firm that is familiar with these strategies like an iPad deployment, any business can optimize what mobile devices bring to the table.
