HP: Mobility and connectivity vital for CIOs

Simon Molloy, Manager Market Development at HP, believes that mobility and connectivity are the two big trends that CIOs should sit up and take notice of.

IT Brief caught up with Molloy (pictured) after his Planet 2010 keynote speech titled “Innovations In Technology” at the Sky City Conference Centre in mid-March. When asked what future trends CIOs should be on the lookout for, Molloy wasted no time in calling out mobility and connectivity.

“Enabling your workforce to stay working as much as possible, wherever they are is becoming more important,” he said. “But that brings with it challenges because you’ve got to manage that process or you’ll find your employees working all sorts of hours, which isn’t healthy. I think there’s a huge return on investment in just being able to be flexible in where they work from and that really comes down to connectivity and mobility.

One major concern of mobile working, aside from productivity, is security, which Molloy thinks could be taken more seriously. “All the tools are there, they’re not hard to implement and it doesn’t have to be terribly complex. There’s a barrier in that people think it’s going to slow them down or prevent them being productive but it doesn’t. It’s a process you have to go through once and you’ve pretty much protected.”

He continued, “With cloud computing and access from home, people are emailing themselves spreadsheets and downloading data through their home PC. So company data is now going to the home as well and that a huge challenge for the industry. It’s not just via one device either, it’s your phone, your notebook, your home PC and even USB keys. These are all so prevalent now, it’s amazing.”

Molloy believes more education in security is needed but added it’s difficult because there’s no value in selling built-in technology. “It is challenging but there are some fundamental things you can do to at least protect a device and then it’s a matter of policy within the organisation.

“It’s a complex area but very essential that businesses do address it.”