Security concerns are mobility's only kryptonite

With the rapid expansion of the mobile device market and the desire among companies and professionals to promote anywhere access to the enterprise network, it would be difficult to find an organization not jumping on the enterprise mobility bandwagon. The benefits seem too great to ignore.

Still, there are companies out there concerned about the implications of arming the workforce - or allowing them to arm themselves - with smartphones that will access the network and sensitive company data. And, according to a new report, even though nearly all firms are at least looking into implementing a mobility program, security concerns remain a top hindrance to adoption.

Conducted by the Enterprise Device Alliance, the latest research in the area was pulled from the responses of 277 IT administrators - the employees within an organization most likely to be responsible for mobile device management.

Among those polled, 90 percent said the use of tablets is at least being explored through a pilot program. Still, just 6 percent of employees at such companies actually have a device in their hands. Next year, however, will be a time of rapid adoption, as respondents expect the usage rate to increase 250 percent with 15 percent of the workforce leveraging tablets.

Despite this apparent enthusiasm for the latest in mobile technology, respondents couldn't seem to get past the impact devices have on data security. These concerns must be cleared up if companies are to fully take advantage of mobility, researchers concluded.

At 54 percent, more than half of respondents admitted that worries surrounding unauthorized access to the company network are holding back their organization's adoption rate. Even more, 59 percent, said they are concerned about the effects of a device being lost or stolen.

"The good news is that there's still time for enterprise IT to plan and prepare for the onslaught of mobile device deployments coming in 2012," T. Reid Lewis, the vice president of one of EDA's founding member companies, said.

The issue of mobile device security has been addressed by several reports lately. Last month, CMSWire released a list of the best practices companies can follow in order to protect their data and the mobile devices used by employees. Among the suggestions was the creation of a mobile phone inventory that will allow a company to track which users and devices have been granted access to the network.