I was sitting at the management team meeting of a Top 5
technology company recently and we conducted a straw pole around
the desk. Laptop or Tablet? The room was split but fell in favour
of the laptop, and a vociferous debate ensued. Whether those
present or not like it or not, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is here
to stay.
The challenge for corporates is that individuals can afford to
upgrade their devices quicker than their employer can. An Ovum
report (‘The BYOD Gap’) noted that this consumerisation is taking
the control of IT departments out of their hands, and into the
hands of the employer. How does business manage this? Well manage
is a choice word to use because I’m unsure if they do. From
conversation I have had businesses take an approach akin to the
Little Dutch Boy by implementing a stop gap and hoping Mobile
Device Management (MDM) does the trick.
Apple and Android have stolen the march on the BYOD trend but
the advent of the Windows Phone (fuelled by Nokia’s alliance with
Microsoft) will only add to the headache that is presented to IT
departments across the globe, but what these players have done is
boost the MDM marketplace. While these devices might not comply
with a wide range of security standards, it is widely accepted that
within five years this landscape will change and compliance will be
more widespread.
With Gartner estimating global smartphone sales to top 450
million in 2011, climbing to over 645 million in 2012, it suggests
that in 2011 smartphone and tablet sales will be almost 45 per cent
higher than PC’s. It seems as though my round table straw pole was,
like it or lump it, a sign of the time right now. I will be
conducting it again in a years time.
All of this is of course impossible if you don’t have the right
people or partners in place to support your business. ARM works
with both global Security Consultanices, and SME partners providing
professionals with PCI, GRC, ISO, CHECK, CREST, Network &
Perimeter Security, DLP, IAM and SIEM skills. As an accredited
Investor in People employer we understand the importance of
continually improving our employee’s skill sets. IT &
Information Security continues to progress at some pace and
accordingly investing in your security team is one of the most
prudent investments you can make.
While we have been gripped by the credit crunch for the past 2
years IT Security Gartner has noted that in 2010 security software
and services spending bucked the trend, outstripping all other
areas of infrastructure and software, posting a 4% growth. Consider
this against shrinking IT budgets and the focus on SIEM, email
security, content filtering and user provisioning spending makes it
all the more impressive.
What this pressure of IT department’s does is place a premium on
getting the right people to make good the investment in security.
Demand for security professional with the right badges continues to
grow across all sectors including government, SMEs and Enterprise.
This has continued the upward spiral experienced during the 2009
recession.
CWJobs conducted a survey earlier this year which discovered
eight of ten IT professionals believe technologies such as mobile
and cloud computing are creating this demand. The same number of
professionals are going to capitalise on this demand by training
themselves up on security capabilities to boost their skillset –
19% plan to re-train from scratch and enter this lucrative and
challenging market.
So, the question that presents itself to business – what does
the security threat landscape look like to you, what are you going
to do about it, and who are you going to get to do it?
Damian Hicklin
IT
Security & Communications Recruitment Manager
Follow me on Twitter
ARM