COMMUNICASIA, SINGAPORE--IT workers no longer need to feel guilty about using instant messaging (IM) in the office because consumer apps are making their way into the enterprise space.

Tools once considered to be consumer-specific such as IM and Skype, are becoming commonplace in the office, according to research company Gartner. And IT departments have so far, allowed these tools to remain in their network.

Dion Wiggins, vice president and research director at Gartner, said: "IT has not stopped any of these consumer technologies from coming into the enterprise." Addressing a roomful of attendees at the iX conference, Wiggins noted that consumers are now driving the economy, displacing the defense and enterprise market segments.

For example, consumers have been primary drivers of several semiconductor investments as a result of products, such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.

And technologies such as Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), were primarily driven by consumers.

Brad Gray, vice president of Asia South Pacific for Juniper Networks, explained: "That's because there is simply nothing exciting happening in the enterprise world right now."

He noted that it was consumer applications including P2P (peer-to-peer) traffic and online games, which provided the best real-world stress tests for networks. "All our learning has been done by serving consumers," Gray added.

Wiggins said: "We're calling this the second Internet revolution. It's about making computers and IT systems work." This trend is brought about by a new generation of workers who are increasingly familiar with technology and popular applications, he added.

Andrew Namboka, chief technologist for Nokia Enterprise Solutions Asia, describes the process as "infiltration", where tech-savvy employees who understand the technology that benefits them would not hesitate to use these tools at the workplace. "Consumer characteristics are driving enterprise applications," he said.

However, there are issues that enterprises will have to address as a result of this market trend.

For instance, the ubiquitous USB flash memory drives may offer convenient storage alternatives for workers, but they also present a security risk to enterprise data.

Wiggins said: "Anyone can just walk off with gigabytes (GB) of important data". He pointed to his own mobile phone which has a 4GB hard drive, as another security risk that can easily store entire contents on the popular Wikipedia portal, for example, or a competitor's trade secrets.

Another undesirable development for enterprises is the disruption to productivity, where services such as push e-mail or IM, can cause unwanted interruptions as employees stop to read their messages.

There are other concerns.

Wiggins pointed out that anyone could have recorded his speech using a camera phone and uploaded the clip on the Internet for others to view. This can be beneficial if done for training purposes, but it can potentially also be used with ill intent.

One message is clear though: businesses need to learn about consumer technology products and applications, and find ways to use them to the company's benefit.

Wiggins revealed that Wikis are used at Gartner, allowing staff to create, add and edit content in a shared-knowledge database.

Chuck Trent, Cisco Systems' CIO for Asia Pacific, said the networking vendor is blending consumer technology with enterprise technology to help bring its "Virtual Campus" vision to reality. The Virtual Campus concept makes use of technology such as virtual meetings, to streamline decision-making and communications for the enterprise.

The initiative aims to simplify processes for Cisco employees, and facilitate better collaboration with the company's business partners worldwide.

Trent said: "We need the same capabilities in our home office and while traveling, as we do in the business office."

According to Gartner, newer consumer technologies such as low-power OLED (organic light emitting diode) screens, Rich Media or Web 2.0 sites, 3D graphics, video phones and even wireless printing, will make further inroads into the office space including the mobile workforce.

Billy Teo is a freelance IT writer who is based in Singapore.

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