A Perspective on BYOD

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has become a reality for most business.

Work has become rather a function than a place. The typical workforce is shifting from work-life balance to work-life integration. This makes BYOD a fact of life for both employees and corporate IT leaders. It’s not uncommon for corporate users to have 2 or 3 private devices each, wanting to connect all of them to corporate IT services, irrespective of company policies or compliance requirements. IT leaders, on the other hand, must contend with a seemingly impossible dilemma: protect corporate data and evaluate the complications of access to employees’ personal data.

 

A strategy is in order, then. And it doesn’t have to be scary. Here are some strategy guidelines that LuminIT assists clients with:

 

• First and foremost, create a BYOD policy based on what users are actually using and how much of it. Publish the policy and seek buy-in from the relevant stakeholders. Make the enrollment mandatory yet simple.

• Over-the-air and remote services are a must. This goes for self-service as well as device configuration and control.

• Separate corporate and personal data. Users will appreciate this separation and IT’s life will be easier. As important as this separation is, however, it can be the most engineering-intensive part of your BYOD strategy. When implemented correctly, this separation can protect confidentiality, head off liability, and pay for itself the first time a user loses his/her phone and a selective wipe of corporate data has to be performed over the air.

• Monitor, Manage, Herd, and Automate. Mobile devices are fertile grounds for all sorts of policy violations, and much more so than desktops and laptops. Jailbreaking, data overuse, games, and unapproved updates are but a few opportunities to violate corporate policies and potentially expose corporate data to unauthorized access. BYOD helps take IT out of the communications business, while MDM herds employees gently towards acceptable use. Devices are monito\red constantly. Automated warnings, locks, and wipes are triggered based on the nature of user action.

BYOD is a recipe for freedom, and it doesn’t have to be without security. However, one approach doesn’t fit all. There are many factors that should be considered in formulating your BYOD strategy, not the least of which are your industry, location, the make-up of your workforce, .

 

Contact us now to learn more about how we can help you free your business from the burdens of owning mobile devices without risking exposure of your corporate data.

 

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