For a little insight into one of the key IT trends unfolding this year, look no further than the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas this week. While CES explicitly targets the consumer market, the show foretells--for better or worse--developments in enterprise IT as well. There will be considerable buzz around Internet-connected televisions and all kinds of home monitoring technologies, but forecasters expect the tablet computer to be a main event. 

The consumerization of IT may be best illustrated by Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) recent efforts, both direct and indirect, to worm its way into the enterprise, and the iPad may be the best illustration of those efforts. As every vendor and his brother attempt to replicate the iPad's success with their own tablets, IT departments will undoubtedly feel mounting pressure to support the devices.

Dealing with the security difficulties and other challenges of integrating Apple products and other consumer-oriented devices into enterprise IT systems has become a business unto itself. There are some good reasons to resist the consumerization of IT, but at this point it looks as though resistance is futile (particularly because the iPad seems to be popular among CEOs). In the spirit of getting 2011 off to a good start and embracing the inevitable, I present a few tips from 318 Inc., a consulting and IT services firm, for deploying iPads in the enterprise:

• Define the business objectives for deploying the iPad, and be sure there is a sound understanding of the users' requirements.
• Identify access, security and authentication policies for use with Apple's iOS.
• Know what the device requires in terms of apps and its intended work flow.
• Be sure that you "get in front of the iPad and iPhone tsunami" so that business units don't try to take over the implementation.

The last bit of advice on this list from the 318 group may be the most prescient, and it is relevant to any device or technology that business units express a demand for.  As users become increasingly insistent about the technologies they want, it is unlikely they will become increasingly knowledgeable about--or responsible for--the security, privacy and compliance requirements involved. Those responsibilities are sure to remain with IT, so it's better to establish and enforce policies at the outset than fix problems later. - Caron