Enterprise

Hacking, Malware and Security Are Top Concerns in Mobile Development

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Security concerns continue to grow for the application development industry as a new study has shown that hacking, malware and security are top concerns for IT departments.

According to a new survey conducted by commissioned by SOTI, Inc., IT leaders expect up to 20% of their IT budgets to be consumed for mobile initiatives, with security concerns top the list of mobile priorities with 69 percent of IT decision makers citing mobile security, hacking and malware as their number one concern.

Other security concerns included:

- 47 percent of senior IT decision makers are concerned about their ability to keep pace with rapidly changing mobile technologies.

- 46 percent of decision makers are concerned about integrating systems, data and applications with enterprise systems.

Globally, companies are pushing mobile initiatives with 68 percent of respondents stated mobility is critical for the success of their businesses and with larger organizations of more than 1,000 employees, the number increases to 74 percent. With this ongoing emphasis is an increase in investment with the study showing:

- 70 percent of organizations will spend up to one-fifth of their budgets on mobility.

- An additional 25 percent of enterprises will spend between 20 to 50 percent of their IT budget on mobile technology investments.

Companies continue to dance around the subject of BYOD as the study shows that:

- While most organizations’ first foray into mobility was BYOD, today, 47 percent are leveraging mobility as the platform to deliver new products and services.

- An additional 45 percent of companies are turning to mobility to drive business process transformation and competitive differentiation.

- 39 percent of businesses are aggressively using mobility as a means to extend their ability to engage with customers and partners.

The availability of application developers and other integral IT staff continue to be a determining factor as companies struggle to find staff to undertake their burgeoning mobile mandates as the study demonstrated that:

- 28 percent of senior IT decision makers report that employees were in the driver’s seat in dictating the speed of mobility adoption.

- An almost equal percentage (27 percent) of those surveyed reported that IT was determining the pace of mobility adoption within their organizations.