The data – which forms part of the security vendor's fifth annual survey on IT security – was released at Unified Communications Expo, which opened for a two day run this morning at London Olympia.
According to FaceTime, 57% of IT professionals view unified communications as posing little to no risk to their computing systems, even though 89% of professionals view instant messaging as carrying some or a great deal of risk, highlighting the lack of understanding of the threats that still exist when deploying unified communications technology.
Nick Sears, FaceTime's vice president of EMEA, says that the assumption that consumer-oriented applications will be eliminated once a unified communications platform is deployed is little more than wishful thinking.
"Some 53% of end users indicated that newer web 2.0 tools are `better than those provided by my employer'. If organisations want to stay in control of their networks consideration must also be given to the security, management and compliance of other enterprise and public communication applications", he said.
Delving into the research reveals that, whilst web chat was found in 95% of organisations, it was only recognised as a security issue by 31% of IT managers – this, says Sears, reflects a vivid difference between IT estimates and reality.
In this, FaceTime's fifth annual survey of IT perceptions and realities, the company found that the use of internet applications has grown from being present in 78% of enterprises in 2007 to 99% of enterprise networks – with tools ranging from public IM, Skype, file sharing, web conferencing and IPTV becoming commonplace – in 2009.
According to FaceTime, unified communications suites were found to exist at 34% of IT respondent organisations, up from 29% last year.