What is BYOD? A Definition of Bring Your Own Device
In the past only a few industry sectors required solutions for mobile devices. Now, remote working is quickly becoming commonplace in all types of companies across the globe. The need for employees to be constantly connected to their colleagues and customers is greater than ever. Managing all these devices and ensuring compliance with security protocols, privacy regulations and corporate policies is a major challenge.
So, how can your business find a cost-effective and secure way of ensuring that all employees have access to a mobile device? Additionally, how can a business ensure that all devices are secure and being used appropriately?
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is a concept that seeks to answer these issues. In essence, BYOD provides companies with an affordable and secure way of letting their employees utilize their own private devices for corporate purposes.
Is BYOD a suitable solution for your company? How does BYOD work and what are the pros and cons of a BYOD system? In this article, we’ll take a close look at BYOD, its benefits, and its drawbacks. To sum up, we’ll show you where you can find the best BYOD systems on the market today.
What is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)?
BYOD is the acronym for Bring Your Own Device. The idea behind BYOD is that employees can use their own private devices for corporate purposes, rather than the company itself having to provide them.
The BYOD method stems from the concept of Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT), which originally only applied to laptop computers. These days, BYOD, in theory, refers to all mobile devices (smartphones, laptops, tablets), but is most commonly used to denote the use of smartphones. BYOD devices can be wholly owned and supplied by employees, or the devices may be partly subsidized by the company.
Alternatives to BYOD include COPE (Corporate-Owned, Personally Enabled) or CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) methods. In these scenarios, a company provides its employees with corporate owned devices. Many business leaders believe that BYOD could be the way forward for businesses since it is cheaper to implement than COPE or CYOD methods.
How does BYOD work?
Implementing a BYOD system in an organization requires three elements to be put in place:
- The company must decide on a Mobile Device Management (MDM) system to manage the security of the devices that connect to corporate networks and store corporate data. An MDM system must be able to provide solutions across a range of devices using different types of operating systems. A multiplatform MDM program is an essential part of a secure and efficient BYOD network.
- A written policy must be developed outlining the responsibilities of both the employer and the employee regarding data security, usage, and privacy.
- BYOD requires each individual employee to consent that their device or devices can be controlled and monitored by the company. A user agreement is, therefore, a critical component of a BYOD rollout.
What devices can support BYOD?
A BYOD system can be rolled out to a variety of devices, including:
- Personal standalone computers (home office workers)
- Laptops
- Tablets
- Rugged devices
- USB drives
- Smartphones – Now the most common devices used in a BYOD system
What are the benefits and drawbacks of BYOD?
There are many positive aspects of BYOD, which is why it is so popular in the business world. Firstly, BYOD solutions are incredibly cost efficient. There is no need for a company to supply devices, so initial costs are lower. BYOD allows for greater flexibility since it is a multi-device, multiplatform system.
A BYOD system can be implemented easily, since employees are using their own devices there is no learning curve required. BYOD also enables fast onboarding for new hires. With the right MDM solution, BYOD assists IT admins in keeping corporate apps up to date across the board. Using their own devices also helps to improve employee productivity and enhance employee morale.
There are also, it must be said, drawbacks to BYOD. BYOD requires complex IT support systems to cope with a range of devices and operating systems. This also raises the possibility of operational and compatibility issues. Multiplatform BYOD systems are often less secure than single platform MDM systems.
There may be privacy concerns due to the ineffective separation of personal and corporate data. There may also be security issues regarding ex-employees still having access to sensitive corporate data.
For these reasons, COPE single platform systems are still popular in the business world. COPE systems provide enhanced security and have much lower ongoing IT administration costs. A COPE system may be a better choice for a business than BYOD. Managers and IT administrators should weigh up the pros and cons of BYOD carefully before making a decision.
How to find the best BYOD solutions on the market
One way to decide if BYOD is right for your company is by considering what is most critical. Is your company more concerned about data security or upfront costs?
Is time a factor? BYOD systems can be much faster to deploy than COPE systems. Will allowing employees to use their own devices boost morale?
Will your employees be more productive since they are already familiar and comfortable with their devices?
By focusing on the core needs of your business you should be able to get a clearer picture of whether or not a BYOD system is the solution you need. If you do go ahead with a BYOD system, you’ll need to find a company that can deliver effective MDM and Mobile Application Management (MAM) solutions for the right price.
Appaloosa BYOD solutions can be scaled to fit any size network and provide a wide range of security and management features. Appaloosa’s BYOD programs can allow you to protect devices with single sign-on capabilities, secure private apps only, wipe corporate apps remotely, and much more. If you are considering a BYOD system for your company, talk to the experts at Appaloosa.