Apple has been a major force in the BYOD movement. You can even argue that Apple ignited the BYOD flame with the release of the iPhone and iPad. While there have a number of studies looking at how companies in the U.S. are reacting to the trend, numbers haven’t readily been available from other markets.
That changed today with a new study that looks at BYOD in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) business and institutions. The results show Apple devices as a clear preference in these markets, somewhat more limited BYOD adoption, and many of the same security concerns discussed by U.S. firms.
The study by Aruba Networks found that 70% of EMEA enterprises allowed some form access from personal devices. The level of access broke down along familiar lines with 30% of companies allowing Internet access but no access to corporate apps or resource while 40% allow some access to corporate apps. The remaining 30% of companies didn’t offer any access though about half of them are open to considering it while the rest haven’t done so for security reasons. 4% of companies have no plans to allow personal devices.
The top challenges and concerns were a familiar mix for businesses considering or implementing BYOD.
- Securely connecting devices to corporate networks – 20%
- Avoiding an increase in IT resources and expenses – 10%
- Ensuring wireless coverage and capacity – 11%
- Ensuring device security – 18%
- Establishing corporate policies and acceptable uses – 16%
- Enforcing access rights to resources based on user, device, and app – 14%
- Evaluating the risk to reward ratio of BYOD – 9%
- Other/unspecified – 2%
Apple lead the mobile platform of choice for both smartphones and tablets with the iPhone getting a nod from 88% of respondents and the iPad from 86%. Samsung devices running Android were the next most popular with 67% approval for phones and 51% for tablets.
One interesting number is that while 70% of organizations allow some type of BYOD use, 78% of those organizations had less than one-quarter of their workforce using personal devices.
Many EMEA companies (70%) are still providing smartphones for users. About half are providing tablets to users.
The amount of companies endorsing BYOD varied significantly in different countries and regions. Here’s the breakdown of some of the EMAE markets profiled in the survey and their rate of BYOD acceptance.
- Middle East – 80%
- Nordic Countries – 74%
- Benelux – 74%
- Spain – 70%
- United Kingdom – 69%
- France – 56%
- Germany – 48%
More details can be found in the full report and an infographic provided by Aruba.
Source: Aruba Networks
Via: ZDNet
Image: Aruba Networks