Employee turnover could be killing your organization: But not in the way you think.

For most managers, the biggest fear is that you lose key personnel, and have to spend time and money finding a qualified replacement. But the real damage from two-week notices could be from users who leave your organization  and take your data with them.

A study by the security firm Symantec shows users’ skewed perceptions of information security. Half of the users surveyed said it’s OK to take data from one job to the next. And many weren’t careful with where the data was stored to begin with.

The survey found:

• 41% of users forward business documents to personal email accounts at least once a week

• the same percentage download work documents to personal tablets or smartphones, and

• 37% use file-sharing apps like DropBox or Google Drive without IT’s permission.

The scariest part of the report was that users flat-out didn’t see the problem with taking documents with them when they leave their jobs. And they didn’t think their IT departments cared, either.

Users who thought it was OK to take data from one job to another believed:

• it doesn’t harm the company (53%)

• IT doesn’t strictly enforce policies anyway, so it doesn’t really matter if they take it (51%), and

• most information is available elsewhere anyway (44%).

Clearly, many users have the wrong idea about intellectual property. In fact 42% believe that whoever creates the data owns it, whether it was done as part of the job or not. The fact is that if your organization created the data, it needs to stay within the company.

Here are three steps you can take to make sure users don’t walk out with your data carelessly.

1. Shore up agreements Look carefully at your company’s nondisclosure and noncompete clauses. Make sure these rules include what is and isn’t acceptable behavior from employees when it comes to intellectual property and data. If you don’t want them storing data on non-company devices or in the cloud, spell it out. Make sure the consequences for violating these policies are strong enough to discourage users from doing so.

2. Conduct IT exit interviews Talk with users who are about to leave your company. Ask what apps or tools they used to help them do their jobs and how helpful they were. These interviews:

• give you an idea of what kinds of tools users want available, and

• let you know if a user has copies of their data outside your systems. So, if they’ve been storing information in a cloud account, IT can tell them it must be deleted before they leave the company. This is a nonconfrontational way to make sure your data and intellectual property stay in-house.

3. Try technical solutions. Data loss prevention software can notify your IT people of leaks in real-time. These programs detect data going outside the company from users or malware. While these programs can be helpful to find problems, preventing the leak in the first place – by addressing user behavior – is usually a better bet for protection.

Talk to your IT folks about these three options:

Strategy #1: Purchase refurbished equipment. You can pick up a cheaper iPod that way – why not the bigger stuff? Many companies are buying refurbished IT equipment for significant savings.

Good for: Servers and other types of large equipment. Steer IT clear of going this route with networking equipment – there have been many reports of counterfeits.

Potential savings: 40%-50%. In some cases, firms report saving 90%.

Strategy #2: Purchase equipment at auctions. You hear the staggering bankruptcy stats all the time – why not turn it into a savings for your company? You can get a lot of IT equipment during asset liquidation.

Good for: Consumables, like printer cartridges.

Potential savings: You may be able to set your own price here. But be ready: It’s cash-and-carry.

Strategy #3: Max out what you already have. Your company could max out existing systems with new CPUs, memory and disk drives.

Good for: Major equipment, like servers.

Potential savings: 90% of what you would pay for a new eight-way server, instead of upgrading your existing two-way to an eight-way.

Adapted from “7 Easy Ways to Cut IT Costs You May Have Overlooked,” by Ephraim Schwartz, at www.infoworld.com

High unemployment and the economic slump have made it a buyer’s market when it comes to hiring for most types of jobs. Not among them would be your IT workers, who are seeing salaries rise and job openings aplenty.

Of course, all this depends on skill sets and employer needs, but the fact of the matter is that IT salaries are costing most companies more these days.

And they’re expected to increase 5.3% on average in 2013, according to new research by staffing firm Robert Half International.

In fact, starting IT salaries will grow more than any other field next year, says Robert Half.

Which positions will see the biggest bump? Mobile applications developers (9.0%), wireless network engineers (7.9%) and web developers (7.3%) to name a few.

Fierce competition for skilled IT people with expertise in emerging technologies like mobile, big data, cloud computing and virtualization is helping drive salaries skyward.

But that doesn’t mean the guys and gals in the trenches won’t see higher starting salaries as well; Robert Half says IT pros working in technical services/help desk/technical support will get offers that are 4.52% higher on average than their current salaries.

Salary may be the deciding factor for candidates

According to Robert Half, the results of its research underscore the need for hiring managers to stay on top of IT salaries in their geographical area. Without this information, says the company, hiring skilled IT workers will be difficult for a number of reasons:

• The pool of qualified candidates is shrinking at the same time demand is climbing
• You’re not just competing for talent within your own industry, but against business of all types across all industries, and
• It’s likely candidates will receive multiple job offers, which means they can be picky when deciding which one to accept.

To avoid a staffing crisis, Robert Half recommends businesses:

• Avoid overburdening existing employees with more work than they can handle, which may lead to increased turnover (especially when tech jobs are plentiful)
• Consider hiring consultants or temps to get by in the interim, and
• Put together the best package possible: competitive pay, great benefits and professional development opportunities, such as mentoring programs and e-learning courses, for example.

Companies looking for qualified IT job applicants should consider people with disabilities as a part of their applicant pool.

This message is being spread by Project HIRED, a San Jose, CA-based nonprofit that helps people with disabilities obtain and sustain employment.

Potential workers ignored?

Project HIRED places clients in all sectors, but has seen more demand for IT skills recently, says its executive director, Gwen Ford.

More companies are hiring disabled people for IT roles because the jobs typically don’t require a lot of physical work. In addition,  many Project HIRED clients come highly skilled in IT.  Some of them have hired on with companies like Oracle and Yahoo.

Many Project HIRED clients are based in and around Silicon Valley, but the organization also works remotely with clients across the U.S.

Project HIRED does not charge clients for its services.

For more info on Project HIRED, go here.

IT management expert Bill Peldzus told Computerworld, “Lowest price isn’t enough of a goal if an IT contract doesn’t include all of the things you need over the length of the purchase.”

What are those needs, in general? Peldzus explains:

• Specifics on maintenance and support, including cost and length of time the vendor will provide support.
• A “pay-as-you-grow” clause in the contract, in which a vendor can install extra capacity at no charge when they bring in your new hardware, and you pay them to activate it as you need it.
• A lock-in on prices for future purchases.

Fact of the matter is, 20% of IT types admit to looking at data they shouldn’t, according to a recent survey from security firm Lieberman Software. That includes confidential information about the company’s executives and the CEO’s private documents.

In most cases, that snooping was likely done more out of curiosity than malicious intent, but it still means highly confidential information is being seen by people without authorization, which increases the chances it will fall into the wrong hands.

And it’s possible that a curious IT staffer could turn into a serious insider threat in certain circumstances – for example, 11% of the survey respondents said if they were laid off tomorrow, they would be able to bring sensitive data out the door with them. And nearly a third said management wouldn’t know how to stop them.

IT has biggest insider threat risk

One big factor behind the risk of an insider threat in the IT department: Many companies aren’t doing enough to restrict tech employees’ access to sensitive info. IT employees often have the highest level of access to sensitive data – among the 450 IT pros surveyed, 68% said they could access more sensitive data than their company’s HR manager, finance employees and even executive team.

Despite the amount of sensitive data available to IT employees, tech departments may not be managing access privileges as well as they could be, as 40% of IT pros said they know they can access data they shouldn’t.

What should your IT managers do to reduce the risk of an insider threat in their department? Lieberman Software offers some advice:

• Keep an updated list of all the privileged accounts that exist on the company’s network so you can easily audit who has access to what
• Enforce a policy of providing the least amount of access that employees need to get their jobs done — that includes staying up-to-date and removing access rights as roles change, and
• Monitor the use of log-in accounts to look for any suspicious use of access privileges.

The idea sounds simple and good: Since nearly all workers could use their own devices, IT time and costs would be cut, right? Not necessarily, according to a report by tech vendor Damovo UK.

The problems with BYOD are threefold:

• Loss of bargaining power. Without a package deal on IT equipment, discounts are harder to get. So there may be a saving when employees use their own devices, but the policy could end up costing you in the long run.
• Support. About seven out of 10 IT directors said providing tech support to BYODs is an expensive nightmare.
• Security. Having BYODs could mean taking extra, and expensive, security measures to protect company data.

Most people in business know how important technology has become to their business, but many of them aren’t paying much attention to one critical aspect of the digitized world: Risk management.

Most admit their organizations are behind the curve when it comes to IT risk management and keeping technology systems safe, secure and operating smoothly.

That’s the word from a recent study by the accounting firm ParenteBeard, which polled senior executives on their attitudes about the influence of IT on their operations and their abilities to manage IT risks.

Those execs are becoming more aware of the trouble the business could be in if technology systems go down or suffer some type of security attack — 42% of survey respondents said that IT success is “inextricably linked” to their overall business success.

Despite that view, many organizations still don’t have the proper systems in place to help ensure that their IT systems are secure from the increasing threat of hackers and data breaches. Among the 70 executives in the manufacturing, distribution and technology industries surveyed, nearly one in five (19%) said their companies are “behind the curve” regarding IT risk management.

In addition, 67% described their IT risk management efforts as simply “average,” and only 15% said they have some kind of audit function to measure IT risk.

The problem could be a lack of awareness — 30% of the executives said they never worry about suffering a data or any kind of data loss. But as IT pros know, those are risks that all organizations face constantly.

However, even among the 30% of organizations that had suffered a security incident in the past, only 6% have made significant upgrades to their IT security.

Now might be the time to get together with your IT chief and get a realistic picture of your network’s strengths, weaknesses and what it will take to make everything more secure.

A new survey of C-suite folks finds that senior executives are confident in their organization’s information security strategy, even when they shouldn’t be.

In a survey of 9,600 senior executives, including CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, and CSOs, a surprising 43%  said their organization had an effective security strategy that was being executed proactively.

Their confidence appears to be misplaced, as the authors of the 2012 Global State of Information Security Survey found that only 13% of the respondents actually had reason for that confidence.

That’s the message from a recent survey conducted by Gabriel Consulting. Just 22% of the 147 IT pros surveyed think their company’s management truly knows how secure their data is.

That disconnect can cause a number of problems, including making it difficult to get more money for security investments added to the IT budget. Overconfidence can also make it harder for management to deal with data breaches when they occur.

The solution: Better communication. Execs need to try to avoid the tendency to think security is only a big issue after something serious happens. They need to ask IT for an honest assessment of risks and take the answer seriously.

IT managers need to do their part by keeping management in the loop — in terms they can understand — about what new and ongoing threats the organization faces.

That’s according to a review of business leaders by the accounting firm ParenteBeard, which polled senior executives on their attitudes about the influence of IT on their operations and the risks to it.

They learned that many industry leaders admit that they don’t have the proper systems in place to help ensure that their IT systems are secure from the increasing threat of hackers and data breaches.

The trend is especially important, they believe, in the world of manufacturing and distribution as new software and hardware are increasingly used to automate processes and streamline productivity.

Their recent poll of leaders in the manufacturing, distribution and technology industries revealed that 1 in 5 executives feel that they are “behind the curve” when it comes to managing IT risks. This is despite the fact that 42% believe that IT success and overall business success are “inextricably linked.”

Additionally, only 15%  have any kind of IT internal audit function to evaluate IT risk.

The survey of more than 70 executives in the manufacturing, distribution and technology industries points to an emerging problem: Many businesses lack internal controls to manage IT systems, despite their increasingly prominent role in almost every business function.

“At this point, nearly every company in business today relies on IT for critical aspects of their operation,” said Jeff Vrabel, leader of ParenteBeard’s manufacturing, distribution and technology practice.

Vrabel adds: “However, many of these companies still need to significantly improve the effectiveness of the way they manage their IT and IT risks. Lack of sufficient controls in IT has led to the string of damaging data breaches we frequently read about in the news. The companies needing improvements have a tremendous opportunity in IT if they focus on it.”

The survey shows that some executives are not even aware of the risks posed by their IT systems. Nearly a third (30%) said they never worry about suffering a data breach or any type of data loss.

Meanwhile, an additional 30% said their company has been hacked at some point. Of that group only 6% has made significant upgrades to their IT security since the hacking.   These findings are indicative of the fact that nearly two-thirds (61%) said that IT leadership never attends audit committee meetings.

“Make no mistake, if sensitive or private data is hacked, companies will suffer consequences in the form of customer backlash, lawsuits or even government investigations,” said Jeff Krull, a partner in the firm’s corporate governance and risk management practice. “Companies need to take an integrated approach and include their IT leadership in any discussions about risk management practices.”

Upper level managers — ironically, the people charged with enforcing some of your security policies — present the biggest security headache for most companies. And the higher up the ladder managers climb, the less concerned they become with security.

The majority (56%) of IT professionals say their organizations’ higher-ups believe that IT’s security rules don’t apply to them, according to a recent survey from security vendor Cryptzone.

In addition, 42% said directors and senior managers in their companies flat-out ignore security policies. What may be even worse, 52% of respondents said they agreed with the statement, “Directors have access to the most sensitive information but have the least understanding of security.”

One possible solution to that problem: Offer the right amount of training to the right people.

The majority (65%) of IT pros said everyone in their organization gets the same amount of training, regardless of their jobs. But the higher up in the company you go, the greater the potential for exposing sensitive information, so IT must make sure those people get enough information to minimize security risks.

It’s also important to design training and other educational initiatives so that people only receive information that applies to them.

For more help getting everyone in the organization on board with IT security, read three pitfalls to avoid when promoting a security-conscious culture.

While IT budgets may stay flat in many companies, there’s one tech area that’s going to get a boost in spending: 

Cloud computing.

Most organizations plan to spend more on cloud services in the next year, according to a recent IDG Enterprise survey.

Currently, 60% of businesses use at least one application in the Cloud, and 71% plan to increase their spending on cloud computing services over the next 12 months, according to the survey of 554 IT professionals.

The Cloud’s popularity has been on the rise for a while now, in part because using cloud services can often save businesses a significant amount of money.

However, while cost savings were a significant motivator, respondents to this survey gave a different top reason for moving more applications to the Cloud: business continuity.

Cloud services allow companies to create backups and server redundancies at a lower cost and with more ease than they would often be able to otherwise. That was the top business driver for increasing cloud investments, according to 84% of IT pros surveyed.

Of course, cloud vendors must be carefully chosen for those investments to pay off.

One study concludes that IT investments can significantly boost a company’s profits. However, that’s only the case for certain kinds of IT spending — some of which have a 12:1 payback.

Tech departments often get passed over for budget increases in favor of other areas that are seen as more crucial for producing revenue.

However, investments companies make in IT have a bigger impact on profitability than comparable spending in advertising and research and development, according to a recent study published in MIS Quarterly. The study looked at information from more than 400 companies from 1998 to 2003.

Although IT investments can have a significant positive impact, the effects of IT spending on profits were also more varied than in other areas, researchers reported in the MIT Sloan Management Review.

The biggest gains were seen when companies invested in IT projects designed to increase sales growth and revenue — for example, projects that support customer satisfaction and customer retention strategies. For the companies studied, a $1 increase in IT spending per employee for those projects led to a $12.22 increase in sales per employee, on average.

In comparison, researchers found that IT projects implemented to boost efficiency and cut costs had a much smaller effect on profitability.

Most companies say their IT department lacks some of the skills they need to adequately support the business, according to a recent survey from the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

Of the 500 business and IT managers surveyed, 93% said there was some gap between the technical skills of their company’s IT staff and the skills the organization needs. For most (83%) of the organizations, the gap was described as small or moderate, but 9% said their IT department’s skills are far from where they need to be.

The most commonly cited areas suffering due to a lack of IT skills were:

1. Employee productivity
2. Customer service and customer engagement
3. IT security
4. Innovation and new product development
5. Speed to market of products and services, and
6. Profitability.

The biggest challenge for organizations: Technology changes so rapidly that it’s difficult to train current employees or hire new people with cutting-edge skills.

One tool that can help companies overcome that challenge: online self-study programs for IT employees, which half of organizations said they’re using. That’s often the most cost-effective way to provide training, and it can also allow staff to learn new skills with a minimal impact on their day-to-day work.

As for what specific training companies are offering IT employees, the skills given the highest priority by the managers in the survey were:

1. Networking and IT infrastructure
2. Server and data center management
3. Storage and back-up
4. IT security
5. Database and information management
6. Help desk and IT support
7. Telecommunications
8. Printer, copier and fax management
9. Data analytics and business intelligence
10. Web design and development, and
11. Customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

Can a CEO really be a tech innovator? Plenty appear to believe they can and they aren’t shy about admitting it.

A recent survey from the analysts at Gartner found that not only do Chief Executives believe they’re leading the technological breakthroughs and change in their firms, they’re adamant the transformation isn’t coming from either their CIO or the folks in finance.

When Gartner asked who leads innovation in their firms, approximately one-third of the CEOs selected themselves. After that, a wide variety of executive and senior management leaders were named, however CIOs were rarely identified, and CFOs were never identified.

Should company leaders be concerned that tech innovations aren’t coming from the folks responsible for making them happen?

Probably not. After all, it’s the CEO who’s keeping the overall picture and direction of the organization front and center.

And most CEO appear to be willing to invest in tech to move their firm ahead.

The economy’s a concern, but …

While the economy is certainly a concern for chief executives, the survey results showed by a ratio of more than two to one that CEOs said they will increase IT investment in 2012, rather than cut it.

 “The intention to invest in technology is comparatively healthy,” said Jorge Lopez, vice president and analyst at Gartner. “The newer trends, such as mobile and cloud, are rising to the foreground of CEO’s attention. However, CRM remains CEOs’ favorite IT capability because marketing is a never-ending competitive quest for customer retention.”

Gartner analysts believe the problem with investing in newer technologies for strategic reasons is that organizations need the right kinds of leadership and change management. Many business leaders learned the hard way in the 1990s and 2000s that simply buying and installing technology doesn’t deliver results if it’s carefully paired with changes to policies, processes, organization, roles and culture.

 “More purposeful, structured innovation management could be one way to make technology investments pay off,” Mr. Raskino said. “We see strong CEO intention toward improving it in most sectors, but not in financial services — where, perhaps, regulatory compliance is simply overwhelming all other strategic change thinking.”

 The Gartner survey found that 90%  of CEOs could name a company they admire for its use of IT in gaining a competitive advantage, but when restricted to their own industry, a quarter cannot. Apple easily eclipsed everyone as the most admired company for its use of IT, as it accounted for 39% of the responses. Google was second with 11% share, followed by Amazon at 5.8%.

Who’s leading tech innovation in your organization? Who should be?

Everybody in business loves the idea of IT using the Cloud. Efficient and scalable, it’s theoretically a great way for companies to save time, money, staff and innovation for the important tasks of the core business.

But while everybody loves the idea, it’s making the folks ultimately responsible for the safety and security of company data very nervous.

How nervous? The folks at CIO.com took the temperature of tech pros and found that while 82% of U.S. companies trust the cloud enough to use it in at least some deployments, 54% list cloud security as a high priority (and another 32% cite it a middle priority).

That’s significant concern and it’s a worry that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The costs of data breaches and losses — in both business revenue and organizational reputation — can be astronomical.

To download or take a closer look at the CIO report, visit here.

While spending by IT groups hasn’t fully recovered yet, a majority are reportingboosted budgets for 2012.

A new report from the folks at TechRepublic and ZDNet shows that the priorities of IT groups include more than just hanging on and containing costs. There’s a definite aura of optimism among IT pros, who plan to spend on using technology to improve business, as opposed to keeping the organization alive.

Check out these highlights:

• More than twice as many organizations report increased IT budgets in 2011 as report budget decreases
• 38.7% of organizations say their IT budgets have increased. Compare that to just 16.7% reporting lower budgets. 44.6% say their budgets year- on-year were flat
• Over 20% of organizations report budget increases of more than 10%
• The top three IT priorities are improving business process and efficiency (a “top priority” or “major priority” for 69.1% of businesses), aligning IT priorities with business growth (61.1%) and increasing overall productivity with new technologies (59.5%)
• The larger the business, the more focused they are on lowering IT infrastructure costs. 66.2% of the largest businesses (>500 staff) are lowering IT infrastructure costs, but this proportion declines for smaller companies until it represents only 44.4% of the smallest businesses (1-49 staff)
• Government organizations are far more intent on cutting overall IT costs (70%) than others.

What if your company could add 5% to its bottom line this year?  Don’t look to Sales or Marketing for this one — turn an eye to Finance.

Turns out you can do it without adding a new product or service or landing a major new customer?

The revenue booster: Plug the holes that allow organizations to lose 5%  of their revenue to fraud each year, according to the Association for Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).

Whether it’s expense padding, inventory shrinkage or phantom vendors, occupational fraud costs … big. Unfortunately, most companies still take a reactive rather than proactive approach to financial funny-business.

That’s one trend you want to buck in 2012, says James Ratley, President of the ACFE, in a recent podcast. His appeal to companies of all sizes and in all industries: It’s much more cost-effective to prevent fraud and detect it early.

And how successful your company will  be rests on the people you tap to do that.

Have you assembled the right team?

In fact, there’s one key trait you need the people in charge of ferreting out fraud to possess: sharp investigative skills.

That’s what sets apart your peers who are most successful at fending off fraud from the ones who take the bigger hits, says Ratley.

No one’s talking about the ability to play amateur P.I., per se. But just because someone works in Finance doesn’t make him or her best at spotting financial funny business. There’s a specific skill set your company should seek out.

Encourage your CFO to zero in on which of his or her staffers possess the following three traits and tap them to drive your fraud prevention efforts:

1. Attention to detail. Hopefully the majority of your finance staffers have this – it’s key in Finance overall. But hunt for your sharpest staffers who’ll spot the tiniest discrepancy others might overlook.
2. Strong communication skills, particularly interview skills. Staffers will have to ask probing questions when they find something fishy. Not only must they be good at interviewing, but they’ll need to be able to switch gears mid-interview if they uncover something new.
3. Strategic thinkers. Your more tactically-minded staffers won’t have the big picture awareness to understand all the places fraud could extend nor know the right questions to ask.

Of course, it’s more than just your Finance department that needs keen investigative skills. Another critical area? IT. The tech members of your fraud prevention team should include “forensic” experts – folks who can retrieve vital info that’s been deleted, for example.

1. Capitalize on how digital technology has changed the sales game: If Marketing was 80% creative and 20% logistics back in the early 90s, it’s the exact opposite now. Social media, email and other resources give marketers access to honest, instant feedback and analytics whenever they want it. That means companies can adjust on the fly, tweaking their sales and marketing processes to reflect changes in buyer behavior, then monitoring the business impact of each adjustment.
2. Fuse Marketing and Sales into one department: Research proves time and again that the more Sales and Marketing work as a unified front, sharing info and ideas, the more successful a company becomes. With that in mind, a lot of successful companies are consolidating their Sales and Marketing under one large umbrella, creating more cohesive value propositions via stronger customer focus.
3. Interview your customers: Make it a priority to schedule face-to-face interviews with loyal customers and ex-customers at least twice a year to gain a one-on-one sense of what they like, don’t like, and what changes they’d like to see.
4. Map out the buying process: Once you’ve gathered and assessed all the feedback from web analytics, social media and one-on-one interviews, determine what adjustments you’ll make to the selling process to reflect buyers’ needs.

Based in part on “4 tactics to create a customer-centric sales and marketing strategy,”  MarketingSherpa.

Top technology people list 10 areas of concern that companies need to address.

These are from the latest survey of technology chiefs by the folks at Logicalis

1. IT Managed Services – IT leaders are looking at ways to offload some IT operations in order to better focus staff energies on core activities—those that will drive revenue.
2.  Cloud – No surprise that cloud computing was a top topic of conversation that will continue well into 2012 as IT leaders decide the best ways to use the cloud in their operations.
3. Social Networking – Once again, social media itself was a topic of conversation among technologists, often the early adopters of new communications tools.
4. SaaS – Software as a Service gained more momentum as applications from large and small software developers were offered à la carte via the web.
5. IT Workplace Issues – This was a hot topic in last year’s survey and was just as important again this past year. IT leaders are focusing on IT Jobs, CIO resumes, CIO salaries, workplace motivation and demotivation as well as the ethical workplace.
6. IT Governance – IT leaders acknowledged that IT governance ensures IT is aligned with business strategies and objectives in what will undoubtedly be a talked-about topic for years to come.
7. Compliance – Similarly, compliance with industry and government regulations and requirements was a topic that hit the top 10.
8. 8. ERP – Streamlining the organization often falls to the IT department making discussion about enterprise resource planning an obvious topic.
9. Outsourcing – IT leaders are embracing many options, including smart outsourcing, for maintaining costs and controls when it comes to the delivery of IT services within their organizations.
10. Virtual desktop – IT has not forgotten the desktop in its many forms, including tablet and mobile device. With the proliferation of mobile devices and bring your own device (BYOD) workplaces, delivering secure access to critical business applications has become a focus.