No, we’re not talking BYOB (though in some countries, why not!) — it’s BYOD! For the uninitiated, BYOD is short for “Bring Your Own Device.” It’s the term used in the industry to describe the phenomenon where employees bring their own personal mobile devices (iPads, iPhones, Android phones, Android tablets, etc.) to work and connect those personal devices to corporate Wi-Fi, email, shared drives and documents. The trend is giving IT managers serious cases of hives. There was a recent reportreleased (if you want the whole thing, you’ll have to buy it or call us!) by Cisco on the BYOD trend in the workplace across the globe. From a CIO or IT director’s standpoint, it’s pretty scary. Among the highlights of the report:
- Globally, 48 percent said their company would never authorize employees to bring their own devices (BYOD), yet 57 percent agreed that some employees use personal devices without consent.
- Fifty-one percent of the respondents reported the number of employees bringing their own devices to work is on the rise.
- Using personal devices without consent was highest in the United States (64 percent) and lowest in Germany (49 percent).
- Access to company servers was highlighted as a “huge problem” of the BYOD phenomena as was lost/stolen devices (64 percent globally).
- Overall, 44 percent say that handling BYOD issues diverts IT attention from other important projects.
Scary right? Not for us! This is the kind of data we anticipate seeing. All of these IT issues are addressable with strong corporate mobile device policy (which most organizations don’t have), buttressed by a strong mobile device management software solution. Don’t believe us? Just ask!
