A recent trend has emerged in IT business – but will it take off? Buy your own computer schemes or BYOC to be precise, do exactly that, they allow employees to buy hardware that is subsidised by the employer. Kraft, Microsoft and Intel are just some of the high profile businesses adopting this new policy. Employees, frustrated with having to use outdated technology at work, are often keen to bring in their own hardware, particularly as they often have more modern equipment, or devices that they have a personal preference for, at home.
Research we conducted last year goes perhaps some way to indicate why the BYOC trend is being seen. It found that many employees expect the same or better IT experience in work than at home (56%).
There’s no doubt that this type of activity by staff will raise eyebrows with more than a few CIOs. However the fact that must be faced is that with the boundaries between work and home life ever more blurred, constantly ‘connected’ employees are demanding better IT experiences and access to the full IT experience they are used to at home, within the workplace.
The level of control employers have when dealing with security in these types of situations can lead to challenges, and ultimately even with strict security in place, people will tend to work round barriers to achieve their aim. The better approach therefore given today’s IT landscape is to adopt more flexible policies that work with the needs of both the business and its employees to open up technology and allow innovation to flourish.

So why is email losing its appeal? The rise of social networks means we can now be permanently “connected”. We can tweet our location in real-time, update friends on what we are doing or where we’re going, and it’s instant. The technology is also beginning to take down the boundaries between work and home life. Previous research has found that in 2010 there were 2.9 billion email accounts in the world, with social networking sites following closely behind at 2.1 billion accounts. As well as estimates that by 2014 there will be 3.8 billion email accounts and 3.6 billion social network accounts – a clear sign that email will start to be overtaken by the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

So what are the implications for businesses? Some organisations have begun to embrace the cultural shift recognising it as a useful new channel of communication with both colleagues and clients. Others however fear the openness and the possibility of leaks. However one thing is for sure, social networks are here to stay and blocking social media is not a realistic approach. Instead companies need to decide how they might feel comfortable, perhaps by adopting a new approach to their data protection and security as a first step.

Research has been released recently by AddThis - which is installed in more than 7 million domains and reaches more than one billion users a month - who have looked into the sharing trends in 2010.

Following on from our blog post last week, ‘Social media to define 2011’, the research is dominated by several interesting figures such as ‘44% of all shares occurred through Facebook in 2010, up 33% from last year.’ As well as ‘email is 38% bigger than Twitter’.
The results show the ever-changing move towards social media as a key communication tool. And businesses are recognising this as well. Our recent research illustrated a significant mind shift amongst businesses to show that a majority (54%) now feel Web 2.0 and other collaborative technologies are critical to the future success of their company. The benefits of collaborative technologies such as social media can bring many benefits to a business however a new approach to security is needed to ensure that an organisation’s networks are not compromised. At Clearswift, our web and email gateways deal with specific elements of security to enable businesses to take advantage of these channels, i.e. stopping someone distributing a confidential file on Facebook, yet allowing them to still use Facebook to stay in touch with friends.

As we welcome 2011 the internet and media are awash with predictions and analysis of what the year ahead will bring. An overriding impression from industry experts is that social media can no longer be ignored by enterprises. One of the larger global reports was issued by Ernst and Young at its Annual Information Security conference – showing that we live in a rapidly changing workplace where traditional enterprise boundaries no longer exist. Employees and managers are increasingly driven by flexibility and mobility, greater adoption of cloud computing services, and a growing use of social media and collaborations tools. This further demonstrates that companies cannot afford to dismiss social media as a security risk, when it can in fact be a corporate advantage and opportunity.

This is even more ironic when you consider today’s news that investment bank Goldman Sachs has bought a $450m stake in Facebook – when the bank itself bans its staff from using Facebook at work…wonder if they will change that policy now??