Ninety-five percent of survey participants indicated their organizations have embraced Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), allowing employees to connect via personal mobile devices to internal networks, according to a Network Instruments survey conducted at Interop Las Vegas 2013.

However, only one-third of these companies have BYOD policies in place.

As the use of personal devices on corporate networks increases, 54 percent of network managers reported end-user experience improved while using mobile devices, but more than 40 percent indicated their ability to monitor applications worsened.

Highlights of the on-site survey taken by 96 network engineers, IT directors and executives attending Interop are as follows:

Mobile Goes Mainstream

Nearly all of the respondents, 95 percent, have portable devices, and often multiple devices connecting to their corporate network. Of these, 97 percent of the respondents use laptops, followed by 79 percent connecting with smart phones, 70 percent with tablets and 34 percent use external USB drives.

Majority Lack Management Policy

Of the respondents with mobile devices connecting to their network, only 33 percent have any official BYOD policy governing the use of personal portable devices; 67 percent do not.

Largest BYOD Management Challenge

When listing the biggest challenges in managing portable devices, 51 percent indicated identifying and tracking mobile devices as the major concern. This was followed closely with tracking security vulnerabilities and patches at 47 percent, and troubleshooting portable devices causing problems for 42 percent of the survey participants.

Improved End-User Experience

When allowing users to bring portable devices, 54 percent reported improved end-user experience, compared to only eight percent of end users reporting deteriorating conditions.

Worsening Application Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Nearly 41 percent responded that their ability to monitor application performance worsened after allowing users to connect via their own devices; this compared to 17 percent who saw improved monitoring. Similarly, 38 percent indicated troubleshooting became more difficult after allowing the use of personal portable devices.

"When members of your sales team are using their personal devices more frequently to access the internal network, IT departments have to rethink how they are keeping end users productive, securing their data and resolving issues quickly," said Charles Thompson, director of product strategy at Network Instruments. "Fortunately, today's performance management solutions can help IT teams understand evolving performance expectations and proactively manage user experience when BYOD comes into the picture."