Attempts to curtail shadow IT 'futile', says Gartner

Gartner says IT departments need to embrace shadow IT and BYOD rather than fight it

Organisations' attempts to fight off the growing spectre of shadow IT is futile, and they should be supporting it instead, Gartner has said.

Shadow IT – when employees or business departments introduce their own technologies without their IT department's consent or help – regularly surpasses 30 per cent of a company’s IT spend, according to Matt Cain, research vice president at the market watcher.

This is set to increase as more employees become what Gartner calls "digital employees" and jump on the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) bandwagon.

Many IT departments take a dim view of shadow IT, considering it inefficient and a source of risk, Gartner said. But efforts to snuff it out are futile and a waste of talent within the workforce, the research house added.

Cain said: "Employee demographics will shift to increasingly technically savvy employees frustrated by the pace of traditional IT, and with the skills to find their own IT solutions."

As opposed to sabotaging the progression of employees' and individual departments' digital competencies, Gartner suggests that IT organisations should develop frameworks that guide workers on how to properly take advantage of shadow IT and BYOD.

"Organisations that formally embrace and extend the digital competencies of their employees will experience improved business outcomes and gain competitive advantage," Cain concluded.