Ignoring your business's browser? That's a mistake

Organizations have traditionally devoted minimum attention to Web browsers on users' PCs, but IT departments are finding they need to change that hands-off strategy.

In the past two years, a variety of factors has made browsers a much more important piece of business software for IT to deal with. One consideration has been the rising popularity of cloud computing in the enterprise, which has led CIOs to green-light the adoption of Web-hosted applications of various types, like office productivity, collaboration, and CRM. In addition, on-premise enterprise applications, whether in-house or commercial products, increasingly favor browsers as their front-end components.

[ Which browsers are most secure? Find out in the InfoWorld Test Center's browser security shoot-out. | Browser smackdown: IE8 versus Chrome. ]

Last but not least is the rising range of viable Web browsers. Microsoft's Internet Explorer for a long time was the only browser option, but today there are significant user bases for Firefox. Forrester Research reports that IE holds 78 percent of the installed base, Firefox 18 percent, Chrome 2 percent, Safari 1.4 percent, and Opera 0.2 percent. Even within the IE family, fundamental changes in IE8 in many ways mean IT should treat it as a separate browser.

The greater dependence on a greater stable of browsers, not to mention their numerous versions and plug-ins, complicates the environment that IT must manage, with greater impact on the business when compatibility or other issues arise. And the pace of browser updates is only adding to the pressure.

Treating the browser as an enterprise app
"Enterprises need to think about the browser as a productivity tool, not as a transparent application. They need to look at browsers more strategically," says Sheri McLeish, a Forrester analyst.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine