Many business leaders view the push for a “Bring-Your-Own-Device” (BYOD https://cllax.com/top-10-best-byod-mobile-device-management-software.html) model as a sign that businesses just need to start providing their employees with trendier, more mobile devices to appease their users and “catch up” with the consumer market. However, many of these users already own and use smartphones, tablets, and laptops on regular basis. Users are not asking businesses to provide them with additional devices, they’re simply asking for the ability to use their own.
So why haven’t we seen businesses open their networks and grant their users access to the data and services they need? Why are we still talking about the struggles of BYOD and saying no to our users?
The answer is twofold and is rooted in the fact that both parties are reluctant to give up control.
Businesses do not want to start relinquishing their ability to lockdown corporate devices, pick and choose when and how employees can work, and always having logs of what workers are doing. Employees, on the other hand, want to be able to choose whichever device they want, irrespective of security and management feature sets and are unwilling to sign their personal devices over to the remote-wipe capabilities of their company’s whimsical IT system administrator. Both parties need to consider each side’s perspective in order to make a successful BYOD model a reality.
The missing piece to this discussion is the role of the vendors when it comes to BYOD. Before businesses can truly embrace BYOD, vendors need to start designing solutions differently than they have been. These changes include releasing consumer-level devices with more manageability, security, and features that give users more control over the “personal” parts of their device without sacrificing the integrity of the “corporate” areas. We are already beginning to see this play out in newly announced product road maps related to Android, iOS, and Windows software and devices.
From the enterprise services perspective, vendors need to begin designing creative solutions to accessing applications without relying on specific device configurations or software. We are seeing this already as well with the increase in Software-as-a-Service platforms and “Private Cloud” functionality allowing users to access services through the web with little more than a standard browser. With this level of service in place, businesses are able to leverage intelligent, secure solutions to help grant access to these private, web-based services to users both inside and outside their campus networks.
With solid, accessible, and secure service infrastructures in place on the back end and modern, user-specific devices in users’ hands, a successful BYOD model in the enterprise is finally within reach.
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