Zenprise has released the latest Zenprise MDM Cloud Report which finds that businesses have differing views on the usefulness and security risks associated with some productivity applications, including Dropbox and Skype. Some companies block these apps, others require them, and even recommend them to employees through corporate app catalogues.
Trends indicate companies are undecided on some apps
The Zenprise MDM Cloud Report for Q2 2012 sources data from Zencloud™ customers to identify key trends in enterprise mobile device adoption. The report found that enterprises are making more than 100 different third-party apps available to their mobile users. Organisations have doubled their app deployment from last quarter and several of the top apps commonly appear on both mobile app blacklists and whitelists.
Companies were nearly twice as active in blacklisting or whitelisting apps in Q2 as they were in the previous quarter. In addition to Dropbox and Skype, the most commonly blacklisted apps included Angry Birds; eBay; Facebook; and Google Play/the App Store. Roughly twice as many companies were blacklisting apps as opposed to whitelisting, mostly for security reasons. The most commonly whitelisted apps support business activities, including Citrix; Adobe; Evernote; Find My iPhone/iPad; Dropbox; Skype; Keynote; Google Search; Pages; and Cisco AnyConnect. Several of these apps appear on some companies’ whitelists and other companies’ blacklists simultaneously, including Skype, Citrix, Evernote, Keynote, Facebook and Dropbox.
Policy trends point to corporate-issued devices for mobile business initiatives
The most commonly-used mobile device policy in the second quarter continued to be passcodes – at 54 percent compared to about 44 percent in the previous quarter – suggesting a continued focus on securing mobile devices. More significant, though, was an increase in policies restricting basic device functionality or apps, such as disabling Google Play, Bluetooth and embedded cameras. More than one-third of companies included in the report are now limiting some app or function, compared to 14 percent last quarter. This setting is typical for corporate-issued devices rather than employee-owned devices in a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environment. Companies also deployed a variety of productivity-enhancing policies including Wi-Fi, VPN and GPS.
“The numbers indicate that enterprises are getting their arms around BYOD trends and are now leveraging mobility as a strategic initiative,” said Amit Pandey, Zenprise CEO. “More enterprise organisations now recognise the significant productivity and operational gains that mobile devices can provide, so we’re seeing companies pushing policies and trying to guide workers toward apps that provide real business advantage.”
Among other key trends in the report:
· Use of advanced capabilities such as Mobile App Tunnels increased during the second quarter. Mobile App Tunnels are app-specific encrypted tunnels used to improve the security and performance of mobile apps. More than 80 percent of Zenprise customers used Mobile App Tunnels in Q2, largely for remote support, corporate Intranets, Citrix, SAP and custom apps.
· iOS and Android mobile operating systems continued to gain worldwide traction. In Q2, iOS jumped to 58 percent penetration compared to 52 percent in the previous quarter, while Android grew to 35 percent from 31 percent. Windows Mobile declined to seven percent compared to 17 percent during the previous period. Zenprise research indicates that corporate-issued tablets helped drive new customer adoption in the enterprise for iOS and Android.
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