Consumerization of IT basically means that not the IT-department or the purchasing department are responsible for which devices the employees use. They choose the device and software they want. For example, everybody heard the new term „Bring your own device“.
I think consumerization of IT is – based on cloud, SaaS and mobile technologies – a reasonable trend. Because we are going more and more in the direction of a mobile cloud. That does not mean, that the cloud becomes mobile itself. Instead of this we become more mobile and flexible. Because all our important data, applications etc. are always with us. Either local or provided by a cloud.
This trend also gives the employees more liberty on how they are working and actually where they are working. I am a fan of this cultural change, because I think it is basically not important where we are working. Some people are more efficient in the office and others are in the home office or a café. It’s the same with this „classical“ nine to five jobs. It is not important when you are working. It’s important that you are working and get things done in the expected timeframe.
For example: In his Connected World Report, Cisco found out, that 3 of 5 students would like to work more flexible and want to work outside the company. See more below.
Because of that it is not necessary that the IT department is dicating everything regarding the hardware or the local software because the corporate relevant data and applications are in the cloud. Of course, the whole implementation process is not easy and may become a big challenge for the IT departments.
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