Speaking at a technology journalist conference on the Gold Coast, managing director of VMware Australia New Zealand (ANZ), Paul Harapin, group executive of Fujitsu, Cameron McNaught, Dimension Data's general manager of virtual data centres, David Hanrahan, and Citrix's ANZ vice president, Peter Brockhoff, agreed that CIOs are facing an uphill battle.

"Almost every CIO says their CEOs want [to use] their iPad [in the enterprise]," VMware's Harapin said. "The CIO is siting there pulling their hair out asking how do they adapt when they've locked down their systems and servers?"

For Citrix's Peter Brockhoff, the consumerisation of IT means flexibility on behalf of CIOs when it came to employees choosing devices.

"84 per cent of organisations will support corporate apps on mobile devices now and the largest benefit is receiving those apps," he said. "The 'bet and dictate' approach is not a sustainable strategy."

Dimension Data's Hanrahan agreed that consumer-centric products in the enterprise are driving change.