Apple's iOS, BlackBerry tops among business users
Apple's iOS and RIM's BlackBerry are the most common mobile platforms seen on the networks maintained by IT professionals, according to a survey from Check Point Software.
Apple's iOS is the most popular mobile platform among corporate workers, at least according to a survey from mobile security provider Check Point Software.
Among the more than 700 IT professionals polled for a Check Point study (PDF) released today, iOS accounted for 30 percent of the collective traffic on their networks. But RIM's BlackBerry was right behind with 29 percent.
As BlackBerry has long been a corporate standard, the rise of iOS is a clear sign of the consumerization of IT in which employees want to use the same devices at work that they use at home. The trend is even more notable since Apple gears its products for individual consumers with little focus on the enterprise market specifically.
Among other mobile platforms, Android took third place in the study with 21 percent of all traffic, followed by Microsoft's Windows Phone with 18 percent and Nokia's Symbian with 3 percent.
The use of mobile devices on the job has skyrocketed over the past two years.
A full 89 percent of the IT professionals polled said that they now allow mobile devices to connect to their corporate networks. Further, 65 percent noted that employees use both their own personal phones or tablets as well as company-supplied devices. In fact, more than three-quarters said they're seeing twice as many personal devices in use as they did just two years ago.
But the jump in personal devices is also bringing with it added risk.
Almost two-thirds of those polled said they've seen an increase in security threats over the past two years. And a full 71 percent believe mobile devices are a "contributing factor" to the rise in security problems.
Almost three times as many IT pros labeled careless employees a greater risk than hackers. Many blamed a lack of awareness on the part of employees for the riskier environment, while others pointed to insecure Wi-Fi connections and Web browsing.
Android was seen as the riskiest mobile platform, followed by iOS. Always popular among enterprises for its tight security, the BlackBerry platform was lauded as the least risky environment.
Sponsored by Check Point and conducted by Dimensional Research, the survey targeted 768 IT pros in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Japan.