As a culture, if there’s one thing we can count on these days, it’s the concept of “more”: more consumption, more complicated decisions and more to squeeze into our already-packed days. Additionally, technology has become an increasingly important part of our lives, both personally and professionally. According to Cisco’s recently released Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020), there’s only “more” of that on the horizon.

Here is a quick summary of some of the most interesting takeaways from the report:

  • By 2020, more people will have mobile phones (5.4B) than electricity (5.3B), running water (3.5B) and cars (2.8B).
  • The average mobile connection speed will increase 3.2-fold, from 2.0 Mbps in 2015 to 6.5 Mbps by 2020.
  • 4G connections will account for 72% of total mobile data traffic in 2020 — up from 47% of total mobile data traffic in 2015.
  • By 2020, more than 75% of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video, making this category the highest growth rate of any mobile application.
  • Smart mobile devices and connections are projected to represent 72% of total mobile devices and connections by 2020—up from 36% in 2015. Smart devices are also forecast to generate 98% of mobile data traffic by 2020.

As a business owner, what does this mean? We believe that this data is yet another indication that mobile will continue to infiltrate the workplace moving forward. Therefore, companies must prepare their IT teams to address this in order to avoid 1) compromising their data security or 2) experiencing exorbitant mobile-related costs. Let’s briefly break down each of these priorities.

With an increasing number of smart devices in use, companies will have to determine whether or not to allow bring-your-own-device (BYOD) assets in their organizations and if so, how to manage these devices in addition to any corporate-provided assets that exist. They’ll also have to determine what rules will govern the use of such devices and their access to apps, files, data and more. That’s where the need for mobile device usage policies (MDUP) can be invaluable to have in place starting immediately.

Secondly, the statistic above about the dramatic increase in video use is troubling. There are various security concerns that this poses for organizations, in addition to the fact that video eats up a large amount of data. If companies are paying for this data usage, they could see an unwanted increase in their wireless bills in the days to come. In order to address this, a wireless expense management (WEM) solution can help IT teams review and evaluate both service and hardware costs across all individuals, departments and carriers in one location and help them make more cost-effective decisions based on real-time data.

Most importantly, business owners shouldn’t wait until 2020 when these statistics are verified to address their enterprise mobility. Now is the time to get ahead of the curve, and TechOrchard can help. Call us today to get started.