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BYOD: A Comprehensive Guide: Page 2 of 2

According to the InformationWeek 2013 Mobile Device Management and Security Survey associated with Culver's report, just 26% of the 307 business technology professionals queried had actually deployed some sort of MDM product. Another 17% reported being in the process of deployment, while an additional 39% of organizations were still evaluating these products. Additionally, 12% said they had no plans to deploy and 6% didn't know what their deployment plans were.

And yet, the need for policy management and mobile management functionality continues to grow. The survey showed that compared to a similar survey in 2011, the number of decision-makers who predict an increase in employee-owned devices in their environments jumped by 7%, to a total of 72%.

Additionally, those surveyed noted an increased dependence on mobile technology in the role of employee productivity. The number of organizations that predicted smartphones playing a part in increased productivity within the next two years edged up 5%age points to 87%. Meanwhile, those who predicted the same for tablets shot up significantly--by about 12 points--to 91%.

Clearly, with further increases in use of mobile devices imminent, IT can only afford a wait-and-see mentality for so long. According to the survey, the vast majority of organizations--72 percent--named security as the primary reason for deploying MDM. Not even close in second was the 12% of organizations that named greater efficiency of mobile spend as a primary reason, followed by 8% who named inventory and audit and 7% who named cost savings.

"IT worries about infected end user devices attaching to internal networks, proprietary or sensitive information leaving the corporate network, too many different configurations to support, and having no way of enforcing antivirus or malware protection or patch levels," Culver wrote.

Culver's analysis shows is that once buyers get down to brass tacks and examine a product's functionality, they'll find a surfeit of vendors. The real trick is in stitching together the right capabilities to fill a particular enterprise's unique requirements.