Securing and Managing Smart Phones, USB Drives and Other Mobile Endpoint Devices

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - February 11, 2010) - Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), today announced a new market research study which reveals that the top performers in securing and managing mobile endpoint devices (such as smart phones and USB drives) are able to support 30% higher scale, at 30% lower cost per endpoint per year, while simultaneously driving year-over-year improvements in security and compliance. As described in the report Going Mobile: Securing and Managing Smart Phones, USB Drives and Other Mobile Endpoint Devices, the intimate relationship between enterprise end-users and their smart phones has grown so powerful that those who would attempt to take these freedoms away will have to take them forcibly "from our cold, dead hands."

Predictably, the consumer-driven diversity and quick-turn replacement cycles of mobile endpoint devices in the enterprise comes with an associated cost. And yet it may come as a surprise to many that the total cost of a smart phone over its replacement cycle -- when normalized on the basis of total cost per user per year -- was nearly 50% higher in comparison to that of traditional PCs, laptops and notebooks. Even when considering that enterprise end-users themselves are shouldering a healthy portion (on average, about 25%) of the total cost of their smart phones -- a burden they are willing to bear as part of the "consumerization" of mobile endpoint devices and the trend towards even faster replacement -- enterprises are still paying nearly 10% more per user per year for smart phones than for laptops and notebooks. For the sake of enabling greater end-user convenience and productivity, enterprises have literally doubled down on the total cost per user per year of providing computing platforms, network connectivity, applications and data -- at least for the growing population of end-users who are approved for both traditional endpoint systems and mobile endpoint devices.

"The blended personal / professional use of mobile endpoints is not just a perk for the senior executives; it has become the new normal for enterprise end-user. The typical enterprise is already teeming with smart phones, USB drives, and other mobile endpoint devices that are accessing corporate email, applications and data," noted Derek E. Brink, vice president and research fellow for IT Security, Aberdeen Group. "But looking the other way, as end-users attempt to self-manage an array of unsupported devices, exposes the organization to an under-recognized set of risks. Leading companies are more liberal than their counterparts in their formal support for mobile endpoint devices, and in doing so they are enabling the objectives of end-user convenience and productivity while sustaining the organization's requirements for security, compliance, and cost-effective management."

A complimentary copy of the Going Mobile: Securing and Managing Smart Phones, USB Drives and Other Mobile Endpoint Devices report is available at http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=6192

To view complimentary 30-minute webcasts highlighting findings from this and other Aberdeen IT Security research, visit http://www.brighttalk.com/channels/1209/view.

For additional access to complimentary Information Technology research, visit research.aberdeen.com.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

© 2010 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928
Telephone: (617) 854-5200
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com