From using personal tablets and smartphones to accessing third-party cloud services and social media platforms, users no longer depend on guidance from their companies to get their jobs done and IT departments need to keep pace. Companies worldwide must decide how to address the security and compatibility concerns that come from this blending of personal and business technology.

Does your company have a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ policy? How are you handling ‘rogue’ users and insecure environments? The links below will help with understanding this important shift.

Here are some of the most active conversations on ITKnowledgeExchange.com on consumerization topics:

• How does your company manage BYOD?

• What kind of mobile device restrictions do you have in your organization?

• How do you decide which mobile devices to support?

• What are the policy options available in mobile device management and how do they differ?

• What’s your mobile device security policy?

View all consumerization discussions in the community.

Several ITKE bloggers have also provided perspective on consumerization:

• ‘Consumerization’ means different things to different people by Scot Petersen (CIO Symmetry)

- Scot Petersen looks at the true meaning and impact of consumerization and determines that it really depends on who you ask (as the comments prove).

• Podcast: Coping with consumerization by Jessica Scarpati (Security Wire Weekly)

- In this podcast, several security experts discuss strategies on dealing with the increase of consumer devices in the enterprise and making sure sensitive data is protected.

• Who makes the rules? by Christina Torode (TotalCIO)

- When it comes to dealing with consumerization, the command and control’ approach continues to be common in many companies, but who controls the approach is still up for debate.

• The evolution of CoIT: Part 1 by David Scott (The Business-Technology Weave)

- IT business expert David Scott looks at the beginning of CoIT and how it started through the phenomena known as ‘Bring Your Own Device’ and the different issues, policies and practices associated with it.

• The evolution of CoIT: Part II by David Scott (The Business-Technology Weave)

- Scott discusses the realities of consumerization and the main ways of managing the challenges it presents.