According to a recent survey, people are obsessed with their smartphones. While this comes as no surprise (how many times have you heard “get OFF your CrackBerry!” while out at a restaurant?), some of the results of the survey are shocking. Twenty-two percent of respondents would rather give up their toothbrush than their phone for a week, and 20 percent of respondents would rather go shoeless than phoneless!

This obsession with smartphones and other devices such as iPads, Kindles (and the list goes on and on) has filtered down into the workplace more aggressively than anyone expected just a few years ago. Allowing employees to use personal devices at work – for example, connecting their iPads to the corporate network—is something that has come to be expected in recent years. This phenomenon, referred to as the “Consumerization of IT,” presents particular challenges to IT departments, which begs many questions—including how do you keep your network safe?

In a recent article from CIO, author Shane O’Neill cites another survey, one that asked IT professionals about the challenges that they face when employees use personal devices.  IT managers have more operating systems to manage and connect to corporate networks, which is time consuming and can put a drain on the network’s bandwidth.

We’ve worked with many companies who face these problems, and have helped them ensure their networks are staying safe and secure. Here are a few tips:

• Have employees connect through safe and secure networks—no “honeycombing”
• Have IT set up the connection for personal computers
• Use a VPN for secure access
• Extend corporate security standards to personal devices

If you’re an IT decision-maker, how do you best handle allowing employees to use personal devices? Share your stories below.

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