Gartner has a new report out called “Adapt Your Information Infrastructure in the Age of Consumer-Centric Mobile Apps”. The firm predicts that most mobile apps will sync, collect, and analyze deep data about users and their social graphs by next year, but says IT leaders aren’t considering the “deep impact” this will have on their own information infrastructure.

“IT leaders should ensure they have infrastructure in place that takes into account data collected, not only via mobile apps, but also from apps running on wearable devices,” said Roxane Edjlali, research director at Gartner.

The firm projects that by 2017, wearable devices will drive 50% of total app interactions. That is a bold prediction, but companies are already working to make wearables enterprise-friendly. Salesforce, for example, just announced its efforts in that department.

“Personal data is often collected solely in support of a mobile app’s requirements and not considered an asset within an organization’s overall information infrastructure,” said Edjlali. “Consequently, although this data is accessed and potentially stored in support of an app, it is not managed as a full ‘citizen’ of an enterprise’s information infrastructure.”

Gartner points out that there’s a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable consumer data use, and that the line becomes even thinner as that data becomes more detailed and personal, which is inevitable with wearables. It cites biometric data as an example.

Organizations, it says, must rethinking governance policies and adjust information infrastructure in the following ways:

You can find the full report here with login. Gartner analysts will be talking about the subject at conferences this summer.

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