It’s that time of year again… CES! This year’s Consumer Electronics Show was said to be one of the best yet, with exciting developments in the tablet, smartphone and ultrabook spaces. Before the show, The Washington Post forecasted a ‘slew of new products’ of a hybrid nature, delivering multiple experiences within one product.  In addition, the technical professional association IEEE issued 12 CES predictions, noting that “the consumerization of IT will drive companies to provide more access to social media networks and applications, as well as issue more mobile devices like tablet computers to their increasingly tech-savvy employees.”

This year, I was fortunate to discuss the key trend of the consumerization of IT on a lively and informational panel. Tim Scannell, editorial director at TechTarget, served as moderator and provided a wide range of topics to discuss around the use of consumer devices in business. Myself, along with Shadman Zafar, SVP of rapid product development at Verizon, Chris Fleck, VP of mobility solutions at Citrix and Oliver Bussmann, chief information officer at SAP, discussed the increase in tablet computing devices in the workforce. Due to this surge, bring your own device or ‘BYOD’ policies, are more commonly found in work places today. IT departments are working to better manage, control and support BYODs, so as not to pose a security threat to the company or the employee. Targeted regulations and new guidelines are being implemented, along with several other new tools and strategies. In addition to security, we chatted about how mobile computing devices have the ability to empower employees to be more productive, especially when paired with mobile apps, like Quickoffice

I felt privileged to be involved with such a nice group of bright-minded executives and our panel nicely complemented one of the largely discussed themes of CES this year: IT Consumerization.

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