The Top 50 Apps Employees Sneak Into Work

"Shadow IT" is the latest buzzword for when employees buy their own apps and use them at work.

In a 2012 survey, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that as much as one-third of the money companies spent on technology was for these "shadow IT" apps.

Sometimes employees buy apps to get their work done faster. Sometimes the apps are really for fun, but they've loaded them on their PCs, smartphone, or tablets connected to corporate networks.

A startup that launched last week, Skyhigh Networks, helps IT departments discover these shadow apps so IT departments can stop or control them. It's been in beta with a handful of Fortune 2,000 companies like Cisco and General Electric.

Based on the scans it's done with its beta customers, Skyhigh came up with a list of the top 50 shadow IT apps that employees use at work. Most of these we've heard of, but a few surprised us.

Here they are, in order of how many people use them.

1. Facebook
2. Dropbox
3. Google Mail
4. Apple iCloud
5. LinkedIn
6. Disqus (an app for leaving comments on Web sites)
7. Salesforce
8. Amazon Web Services (Amazon's cloud that hosts files and apps)
9. Hotmail
10. Box
11. Amazon S3 (Amazon's storage cloud)
12. Google Apps
13. Evernote (note taking app)
14. Twitter
15. Microsoft Office 365 (Microsoft's cloud version of MS Office)
16. 4shared (file sharing)
17. RightNow (Customer support app bought by Oracle in 2011)
18. Mozy (Online backup and storage)
19. AOL
20. Sourceforge (a site that stores and shares open-sourced apps)
21. Netsuite (cloud ERP app)
22. Marketo (manages marketing campaigns)
23. Flickr
24. VeriSign Geotrust (security app that ensures a Web site is safe)
25. Google Analytics
26. YouSendIt (file sharing)
27. New Relic (troubleshoots problems with Web apps)
28. Taleo (HR cloud app bought by Oracle in 2012)
29. Slideshare (Powerpoint presentations online)
30. Workday (HR app)
31. Carbonite (automatic, secure backup and storage)
32. Docusign (electronic signatures for legal, business documents)
33. Prezi (online presentations)
34. Typekit (adds fancy fonts to a website)
35. Skype
36. Sliderocket (online presentation tools)
37. Github (open-source projects and job site for developers)
38. Cloudfiles (file sharing)
39. SugarSync (file sharing)
40. PagerDuty (texting app for IT emergencies)
41. Bitbucket (stores open source projects)
42. Intuit Quickbase (creates custom business apps)
43. Constant Contact (email marketing)
44. Xobni (connects your Inbox to your social networks)
45. Snapfish (web photo printing)
46. Spiceworks (social network for IT professionals)
47. Olark (adds chat to your website)
48. Symantec Brightmail (email spam/security)
49. Addthis (adds social features/buttons to Websites)
50. Screencast (cloud storage)