Heath Brownsworth

Every company has them, the rogue employee with the MacBook or non-supported smartphone, or worst of all that slick tablet that they figured out how to get connected to the corporate network. It is one of the fastest growing trends in the corporate world and it is called Shadow IT.

Living outside of IT policy used to be the exclusive parlance of the smarts kids, that handful of people in the organization that are as smart, or smarter, than the IT department. Not anymore. The massive consumerization of technology that we have witnessed over the last couple of years is creating an interesting change in our society. It is accelerating the blurring of the lines between our professional and personal lives. As employees adopt the the work/play anywhere anytime lifestyle, they come to rely even further on technology to enable them.

One of the realizations often associated with this increased reliance is that the employee has access to better technology at home than they do at work and rather than fighting the establishment, employees are simply bringing in their own devices and software into the workplace in order to get work done. Combine these personal devices and software with ubiquitous connectivity and social networks for support and the Shadow IT team springs to life.

Good or bad? Yes. Condoning those who operate outside of the rules is a slippery slope. The obvious issue is security of corporate data, which is a very real concern. However, one of the great promises of technology is that is supposed to make are lives better. The most likely outcome is that Shadow IT will force traditional IT to evolve much quicker, to the point where they become one in the same. I am not sure that anything else will be acceptable.

Heath-

(Cross-posted @ Skywriting)