by Ron Miller, writer for CITEworld

Companies tend to go through a mobile growth cycle that starts with locking down everything, but eventually reaches a point where they’re actively developing and managing secure apps on devices. Getting there usually takes some time, but as mobile devices proliferate in the enterprise companies are going to have to grow up fast.

Speaking at the Gilbane Conference last week, Cimarron Buser, VP of business development at Apperian, walked the audience through this process. Buser said most companies start with the lockdown mentality. In the beginning, everyone handed out Blackberries and kept the enterprise under control, but that has changed over time.

Dan Keldsen, who is principal at Information Architected, and who hosted the talk at Gilbane, says Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has really forced companies to rethink this lockdown approach and find a better balance between user and company requirements.

“Enterprise mobility, from the perspective of the company, and from the individual person, in a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) world, has some interesting challenges. As [Buser] discussed in the panel/presentation, there is a growth curve, or’maturity curve, that is pulling at the seams between what the organization is comfortable with, and what employees are willing to put up with,” Keldsen said.