The new generation of workers arriving on the scene are of a connected generation, fully conformable with technology and ways of sharing; though with neither clue nor care about security. That extends from doing an end run around Sharepoint and sFTP sites in favour of Dropbox and Google Drive, blissfully unaware that the Terms and Service agreement spell out that they now have a copy of your proprietary data for quality assurance purposes thus breaking security agreements made with clients. The software is only a part of the problem as Bring Your Own Device arrives on the scene with your new hires. Benchmark Reviews has put up an overview of what that may mean for many companies and discusses the benefits of implementing true Mobile Device Management software. With proper MDM you can, for the most part, retain some control over the devices connected to your systems, attempting to blacklist the many apps which will happily share any of your company's information stored on the phone and in many cases be able to wipe the device remotely after the inevitable accidental loss of such a device.
MDM's mitigating the problems created by BYOD is good in theory but it overlooks one major issue that this will cause. Your IT staff are now going to be bombarded by requests to fix these random devices, from Microsoft and Apple to Sony and Google through Lenovo and Samsung, every tablet or portable device in every possible configuration of OS and software will show up on your IT peoples desks. Regardless the original official policy, once you accept BYOD your IT people will spend huge amounts of time figuring out basic troubleshooting for devices they've never seen before as you can bet there is no budget to give IT one of each device and time to get familiar with it.
In many cases your techies won't even be able to say with certainty that the device is capable of doing what the user wants in the first place. How will you explain to someone who picked up a Surface that WinRT is not going to be able to be added to the domain for ActiveSync access or that your Samsung just isn't going to connect to that Sharepoint site you do a lot of work on? What will you do when someone hands you a Huawei MediaPad X1? BYOD may attract young new minds to your company but realize that there is a cost to be paid in both lawyers fees when your client discover how much of their data has been accidentally shared as well as in the time your already overworked IT staff have to support your actual infrastructure.
"Let’s face it, smart phones and tablets have become a common part of life. It is not unusual to walk into a place and see a majority of the people with their eyes down, totally engrossed in a mobile device. This is something that happens out in everyday life and is becoming increasingly more common in the workplace. Laptops and desktops are starting to be replaced by tablets and laptop-tablet hybrids. No matter the business industry, just like computers, tablets and smartphones are becoming essential in almost all areas of business."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- AMD reportedly moves desktop headquarters to China to strengthen competitiveness @ DigiTimes
- Ford Dumping Windows For QNX In New Vehicles @ Slashdot
- Taking a peek at a qubit @ Nanotechweb
- Chipzilla just won't quit: Intel touts 64-bit Atoms for Android phones, tabs @ The Register
- MWC: Galaxy S5's lack of innovation could see Samsung's Android grip loosen @ The Inquirer
- MtGox MELTDOWN: Quits Bitcoin Foundation board, deletes Twitter @ The Register
this isn’t a big problem to
this isn’t a big problem to companies that have already outsourced their IT to someone else. For the most part those companies don’t care about down time and user frustration unless said user is an executive.