IT industry facing some hefty challenges

The IT security industry is going through some of the largest changes in its history with several different phenomenons shaping the sector.

One of the biggest innovations in recent years has been the implementation of cloud computing. Since its inception it has boomed and now many organisations are using it to make drastic savings and – in some cases – simply keep up with the competition.

This rapid leap to cloud is causing IT departments plenty of headaches as information security becomes much more difficult.

Another similar security issue that has cropped up in recent years has been the new trend of bring your own device – which has given us the fabled BYOD acronym.

Of course, this has happened thanks to the huge rise in mobility brought about by devices such as tablets, smartphones and even Ultrabooks in some cases.

Many companies across the globe are now allowing their employees to use their own laptops and other mobile devices in order to improve flexibility and generate cost savings.

Naturally, if staff are using their equipment at work, organisations will not need to fork out money on buying it themselves and if staff want to work from home they can, which is certainly useful for those trying to raise a family.

However, the downside to this is there are so many devices to keep track of. A few years ago, a firm would buy in all the equipment and staff would use them. It would all be the same, therefore keeping track of it and installing relevant software was easy.

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case and IT security managers have to keep track of dozens of different smartphone, tablet and laptop brands, while making sure all of them are up to date with protection software.

This will be a key challenge for many within the IT industry over the coming years as BYOD is showing no sign of slowing down.

It’s topic such as this that many professionals like to rant about at the Risk and Network Threat Forum (RANT) conferences that take place up and down the UK every month. Last month’s event took place in St Paul’s, London and it was a fantastic day filled with a tonne of topical debate.