Companies that fail to embrace consumer-oriented technology risk losing a competitive advantage, a research firm said Thursday.

Between 2007 and 2012, most new information technologies adopted by enterprises will have their roots in the consumer market, Gartner said. Examples of consumer technologies today that have infiltrated the business world include instant messaging, desktop search, and the Internet itself.

"Consumer-oriented technology will continue to pave the way for the most-significant IT tools," Gartner analyst David Smith said in a statement. A primary driver behind the trend is the availability of Internet services that have caused a convergence between the Web and computers, Gartner said. As a result, people in the workplace are quick to adopt technology outside of the company.

To cope with the proliferation of consumer technologies, Gartner advises businesses not to ban them or pretend they're not there. Instead, companies should experiment with the technologies to discover ways to take advantage of those most popular with employees.

Consumer technology, however, does present security risks, so Gartner advises companies to architect their networks for more than just internal needs alone, and treat all access as if it were potentially hostile.

"Businesses need to recognize that the consumerization of IT trend will continue to gain momentum," Smith said. "It isn't a fad that's going to go away next year."