It is a phenomenon IT departments and managed-services providers have found themselves starting to contend with: the consumerization of IT.

Largely driven by the iPhone, this development has started becoming a concern for us when the business owners whom we report to had begun to insist on iPhone and subsequently iPad access to their data and networks. Prior to then, we had a basic “NO!” for everyone who approached their account manager wanting to introduce iOS or any unapproved device* into their environment.

It required us to look retroactively at each requestor’s infrastructure and plan for supporting and securing the iOS devices.

Now, Windows 8 is upon us
Unlike previous versions of Windows where there was a clear demarcation between the client, server, mobile, and cloud offerings, the Windows 8 era promises a single code base. However there will be differences in the products.

One of those differences will be in the Windows client: we will have Windows 8 for x86/x64 devices, and Windows 8 for ARM (SoC) devices, recently christened by Steve Sinofsky as WOA.

In a statement in this blog post here, Sinofsky delivered a bombshell with the force of a low-yield thermonuclear device: WOA, while Windows in all respects would be different enough to create compatibility and training issues for IT departments when released.

While still ruminating about what that would mean to us, our clients, and their users, I had the opportunity to read Rob Enderle’s excellent analysis titled Windows 8: Assessing IT Risks of a Consumer-Driven Wave, and immediately, light bulbs went off!

The initial thunderbolt was, dammit, as long as a product attains iconic status, it is here to stay, and WILL be introduced into the IT infrastructure.

I realized I had to learn more.

I reached out to Rob, and had the opportunity to ask him a few follow-on questions.

John Obeto: Shouldn’t the strategic thinker for enterprises see the forthcoming wave and plan accordingly for it?

Rob Enderle: Like any other change you need to anticipate this one even if, or especially if you plan to fight it.

John Obeto: Does being an ostrich or a subsequent hard “NO!” help matters?

Rob Enderle: Not this cycle, executives are also part of this wave and fighting it could become career limiting unless you are in a highly restrictive country (Germany) or in a restrictive industry (banking and finance).

John Obeto: Does Microsoft, Intel or any other consumer-driven wave protagonists owe IT any obligation about warning them to expect their devices?

Rob Enderle: Not really, but it would be wise to get IT on board to make things go easier and avoid a security failure which could cause embarrassing PR problems.

John Obeto: Once of the more obvious things to me, having gone through the consumerization of IT with the iPhone is that once the business owner or any other C-Level decision-maker decides to bring their favored device into the business, some control slips from the sysadmins, as they have to both implement, and support it. Should IT be proactive and actively court upper-management’s input in order to introduce decidedly consumer products into the infrastructure?

Rob Enderle: Yes they need upper management support, but they shouldn’t take responsibility for the devices until they are able to safely manage them, otherwise they’ll be unable to protect themselves.

John Obeto: Should IT stratify users in order to determine the levels of employees allowed to enjoy this benefit?

Rob Enderle: That’s a good idea, and not just on level of employee. If an employee doesn’t show enough maturity IT should deny this benefit. This is a privilege and shouldn’t be an entitlement.

John Obeto: Does this open the door to a BYOD future for IT departments?

Rob Enderle: The door for BYOD opened with the iPhone, now the only question is how far will it go before IT loses complete control or takes another path (like virtualizing and hosting the IT image and providing only web access).

Parsing the answers…
The answer to Question 1 is plain: whatever your position is on consumer products in the enterprise, you have no choice but to plan for them, either to throw them out, or to insert them into your infrastructure.

When executives become part of the mix, as Rob points out in Question Two, having that deer-in-the-headlights look on your countenance will definitely fast track you to career suicide if you have not been paying attention

IT would be very wise to take advantage of the incredible amount of marketing and co-marketing funds being expended by Microsoft and Intel to promote Windows 8. It is also expected that WOA would receive a generous amount of funding as well. As Microsoft is wont to, it is expected that several symposia and road shows aimed at educating IT departments would be delivered. Avail yourselves of these resources, is what I get from Question 3.

While Rob’s fourth answer is self-explanatory, his answer to Question 5 requires that a decision to allow consumer devices into the enterprise must be very well thought out. The support and security baggage that comes with such devices require that the IT department really think about the consequences of giving the devices to just anybody.

The floodgates are open. IT has to artfully manage the situation, says Answer 6.

What now?
Following the foothold of the iPhone, a consumer-driven tsunami approaches.

For the forward-thinking CTO or IT manager, a few decisions have to be made, and quickly too:

1. Do I participate?
2. Will upper-management support or at lease approve of this wave?
3. How do I identify that product to back, and what direction to go towards?
4. How do we control the insertion of these products: on a case-by-case basis, or commence an internal pilot program with selected users before a rollout?
5. Will selected members of executive management be added to the pilot program?
6. Are any of these products relevant to our core businesses or policies?
7. What is the value add gained inserting these products into our enterprise?
8. How do we identify the users who would benefit the most from these consumer products, and by proxy, give our business the most bang for our expended buck?
9. Can we limit our expenditures by just rolling the products to the most deserving on a schedule?
10. Can we secure and support these products within our budgets?

Whatever your answers as it pertains to your company are, serious decisions have to be made.

A failure to do so is an unacceptable failure.

The tsunami is coming, and the tides won’t wait for laggards!

Many thanks to Rob Enderle for taking the time to answer our questions.

* We still do not support Linux or Android. Supporting iOS is an easy lift; Android/Linux is not. I do not see that policy changing any time soon.

Rob Enderle is president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group. Previously, he was the Senior Research Fellow for Forrester Research and the Giga Information Group. Prior to that he worked for IBM and held positions in Internal Audit, Competitive Analysis, Marketing, Finance, and Security. Currently, Rob writes on emerging technology, security, and Linux for a wide variety of publications and appears on national news TV shows that include CNBC, FOX, Bloomberg and NPR.

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