Businesses can't control use of consumer devices, expert says

Companies cannot impose restrictions to control their employees' use of personal devices alongside wide area networking systems, it has been suggested.

The idea of enforcing the exact devices that people use is impossible now, as the appliances are falling in price, meaning that more people are preferring to bring the tools they use at home into the workplace, Blue Coat Systems believes.

Nigel Hawthorn, vice-president of marketing Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Blue Coat Systems, said: "The price of consumer devices is low enough, and the fact that they're used for both work and consumer purposes means that in all but the most top-down organisations people already bring in their own phones and iPads."

Recently, a poll by Damovo UK found that 76 per cent of IT directors at large UK businesses believe that the consumerisation of IT is an over-hyped phenomenon.

Many of them believe that a significant portion of hype has been started by IT vendors.