Albert Einstein once said: “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” And a man name David Shenk commented:  “Information, once rare and cherished like caviar, is now plentiful and taken for granted like potatoes.”

Einstein’s observation above illustrates how we seldom consider exchanging or recalibrating our thinking tool, as it were, for different jobs. The human species surpassed its ability to process new information about the time the first atomic test was conducted at the end of WWII.   Unfortunately, we continue to generate information at an ever increasing rate notwithstanding author Shenk’s warnings in his book “Data Smog” that the sheer amount of data may actually impair performance rather than improve it. 

Confusing information with knowledge compounds the dilemma. A lot of the information being circulated is of limited value outside of specific industries or specialists. It can only be reclassified as knowledge once it is in their hands. The data smog conundrum presents challenges for IT teams trying to secure company data and operations. Granting company access to workers via a plethora of devices exacerbates the situation by continuing the information proliferation.

The authors are not implying that information should not be made available to workers via IT-approved devices. In fact, from a BC/DR perspective, this is very desirable, but it must be carefully managed (protect the caviar, not the potatoes). Company confidential or customer data is usually secured well, but policies outside these areas can be too tolerant. In critical situations, this adds complexity the job of the IT staff and introduces unnecessary security risks. Consistent with industry standard BC/DR policies, not all employees require remote access during an emergency. Therefore, bring-your-own-device policies need to be carefully managed (refer to TMC’s (News - Alert) Enterprise Mobile Solutions channel article March 13, by Laura Stotler). In the event a business emergency or interruption occurs, key management players and the IT staff will require secure access without being blocked or compromised by non-critical workers and their devices.

For additional information and the opportunity to discuss your organization’s specific BC/DR needs, we strongly recommend attending ITEXPO Las Vegas 2014, Aug. 11 – 14 at The Rio in Las Vegas.

Max Schroeder (News - Alert) is vice president emeritus of FaxCore Inc. (www.faxcore.co ). Rich Tehrani is the CEO and group editor-in-chief at TMC, and conference chairman of ITEXPO (News - Alert).