Those trends are pushing IT shops to change, and change quickly, how they manage the growing number of devices and third-party apps their co-workers are using in the workplace, according to IT experts who spoke today at the Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise (CITE) Conference here.

"Users are getting access to an unlimited amount of applications ... and if they don't like that application they can throw it out and try another one," said Dion Hinchliffe, executive vice president of strategy at consulting firm Dachis Group. "It's very hard for traditional IT to compete with that."

Hinchliffe said that if enterprises don't begin developing their own internal app stores for employees to use, workers will find work-arounds that lack security and IT support. And if companies don't deploy internal social networking sites like those offered by Yammer, collaboration tools such as Salesforce.com or secure web browsers such as Dolphin, users will find their own.

But embracing a bring-your-own-device policy brings with it security concerns.

For Festo Corp., a producer of pneumatic and electric drive technology, it's about securing the data and not the device. The company is now in the midst of a four-month pilot iPad deployment.