Computerworld — This business will get out of control. It will get out of control, and we'll be lucky to live through it."

That's a quote from the movie The Hunt for Red October , but it's also a paraphrase of my July column, "The Rise of Consumer Tech." I was lamenting the lack of readiness at many IT shops to handle the explosion of consumer devices, apps and mobile platforms. And make no mistake, IT faces several challenges in the management and support of mobile. But I may have overestimated the cause for concern.

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New Computerworld research suggests that IT shops are moving to address mobility issues -- or that they're at least aware of the need to do so. Especially telling are these stats from Computerworld's enterprise mobile survey, conducted in September:

• Nearly 75% of the respondents said their IT organizations are supporting employee-owned mobile devices, including smartphones , tablets, netbooks and notebooks.
• A surprising 65% said their IT shops are already supporting three or more mobile platforms.

Another finding that shows the wisdom of IT organizations: Some 65% anticipate mobile IT budget increases in the coming year. And the average estimated increase is a fairly significant 19%.

A September 2010 report from Forrester Research sums it up another way: "Most firms have prioritized mobile technology expansion. Mobility is front and center for 62% of CIOs and IT leaders across the globe, with 16% seeing it as a critical priority and 46% seeing it as a high priority."

Most projections show mobile growth continuing well into the new decade. Last month, IDC reported that the third quarter of 2010 marked four successive quarters of growth in handset sales.

But mobile is moving so fast, it's tough to keep tabs on it. In September, IDC said that "heterogeneous device environments are the norm for most enterprises today" and projected that RIM would retain its smartphone market-share lead within businesses in the U.S through 2014. But roughly one month after IDC issued that report, Apple 's iPhone shipments topped RIM's BlackBerry shipments.

That volatility also points up why the proliferation of platforms makes supporting mobility complex. But by far the biggest challenge is implementing enterprise mobile security and figuring out some sort of solution for manageability.

Perhaps the most significant of Computerworld's findings is that, of the companies it surveyed, 80% of those with more than 1,000 employees are taking measures to govern which devices and services employees can use, and they're trying to control whether and how those devices can access corporate data.

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