BYOD is a PITA: Employee devices cost firms £61 a month
Report: Is making workers pay a false economy?
Posted in Management, 11th February 2013 07:34 GMT
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Companies are paying £61 a month for every device their workers bring into the office, but less than half of IT departments have any say in mobile strategy these days.
The numbers come from biz Wi-Fi flogger iPass, which discovered that only 48 per cent of IT departments are still in control of the spending on mobile devices, down from 52 per cent last year. But while they might not be buying the devices, the companies are still paying for the connectivity with an average monthly bill of £61.
That's a global average, costs to US firms were higher given the cost of mobile data, but it's still a lot of money to be spending in connecting devices over which corporate IT has little control.
More than half of the companies surveyed (56 per cent) have relaxed their BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies within the last 12 months, and more than eighty per cent now permit employees to pay for their own hardware for use at work.
Security is a concern, with all these unregulated devices, but management is the thing staff are most concerned about. Provisioning and supporting devices is expensive, and most of those polled reckon the costs are only going to rise. The majority of security incidents were down to handsets that were lost or stolen complete with passwords and logon details.
Various companies will address this, BlackBerry (aka RIM) has its Enterprise Service for managing devices including its own kit, and earlier this week Sophos updated its Mobile Control to version 3, offering lots of phishing and malware protection as well as device management, but that can prove expensive even if companies aren't paying for the kit any more.
MobileIron is another company in the field, which is why it worked with iPass to poll the 477 "IT Professionals" who took part in the survey, the results of which are compiled into an annual report with plenty of pretty graphics (free, but email address required).
It's not hard to see an analogy with the early days of the Personal Computer, when a desktop PC would be slipped through a departmental budget (generally as Stationery Supplies) to bypass the IT department entirely. PCs eventually came under the sysadmin's thumb, so it might be safe to assume that mobile devices will eventually succumb in the same way. The only question now is how much damage will be done in the meantime. ®
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COMMENTS
Pay for my own device, and have them lock it down???
I have steadfastly refused to connect my personal mobile devices to work's network, despite internal websites imploring me to do it with pictures of happy, busy people rushing about being amazingly productive and on the move. Why? Well, it is my device, right? So why then do I have my device eviscerated functionally, apps disabled, more security and tracking tools than I cam imagine and having to sign up to conditions of use that effectively mean I am not in control of anything to do with my device. All I'd manage to do is turn my personal device into a useless corporate brick that only functions in a corporate context... but I would be more productive. I guess...
Re: Pay for my own device, and have them lock it down?? - Quite agree
Completely agree. Further, my device is my device with my personal phone numbers on, texts etc and I steadfastly refuse to mix my personal life with work.
Should for example my phone be confiscated by work as part of a disciplinary investigation for example they could have access to everything on it.
I've not particularly got anything to hide but I still don't want them knowing about my personal life thank you very much...
Re: Security issues
"A) Most technical security issues are caused by Microsoft security holes."
Post proof, or retract.
"B) An even greater number of security issues are caused by social engineering or by employees making mistakes or up to nefarious activities, either out of incompetence, disgruntlement or out of a desire to defraud."
So "most" are caused by MS, but "an even greater number" are caused by stupid human tricks? It would seem that basic logic is not quite within your grasp ...
Couple that with "BYOD is a security concern but generally not as bad as the above security concerns, the extra risk of BYOD is nowhere near as great as fixing the above would reduce risks."
Uh, dude/tte, it's EASY to remove the BYOD issue from the picture. Ban personal devices from the workplace. Simple. No more issue.
"In fact if BYOD meant fewer MS boxes, then it might improve security."
"If" and "might" are not compelling security/business arguments.
No wonder people look down their noses at Linux fanbois ... and that's speaking as someone who has used Slackware as his personal desktop for coming up on 20 years.
Re: Pay for my own device, and have them lock it down???
I'd happily have BYOD if it meant I could bring a Linux box to work
Do you need a linux box in McDonalds these days?
@Eadon (was: Re: BYOD is a way of avoiding lockin)
No. Just no. You are very confused.
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