BYOD: Bring Your Own Device - or Bring Your Own Disaster?
Quiz Intel and Reg staff on the merits of either side
Posted in Management, 12th March 2013 10:59 GMT
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Live Chat In most discussions of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and consumerisation the experts' mistrust of users is evident. Typically, IT departments are not keen on people bringing their own devices into work with the expectation that apps, services and support will just magically work.
But some organisations have decided to trust the user and claim big savings in productivity by deploying BYOD. Is it time for the rest of us to embrace the consumerisation of IT?
Reg columnist Trevor Pott; Jim Henrys, Principal Architect, Intel Enterprise Solution Sales at Intel; and Kevin Breen, Global Service Owner for Mobile Computing, Intel IT, will discuss the challenges of BYOD in our upcoming Live Chat. Join your fellow Reg readers and Reg broadcast editor Tim Phillips for an interactive discussion on Friday, 15 March at 2pm GMT (10am EST, 7am Pacific).
We'll talk about:
- Trusting and educating the users.
- Lack of application/process compatibility between devices.
- Consumer grade vs business quality.
- Theft of shiny objects.
- Where consumerisation is not appropriate.
And more!
Join the discussion below. You can register before the Live Chat for free, and receive an email reminder before we go live.
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COMMENTS
Savings?
"But some organisations have decided to trust the user and claim big savings in productivity by deploying BYOD."
Trust the user or trust their admins to keep everything safe?
And speaking of which; I can't help wonder how much extra taxation this is going to put on IT. Depending on how you (try to) implement all this I can imagine it now: "So I brought my laptop and I can't see my PC?", "Where is that standard logon screen?", "How do I access my files again?", "Why doesn't my version of Word 2003 open this Word 2010 file?", "My Avast kept saying I have a virus for the past hours but now it seems I can't click the error message away?", "Are you SURE you can't convince management to switch to Office 2003?", "I clicked this icon and then my work PC suddenly showed a blue screen?", "Can you give me an extra HD for my laptop, I tried to copy my documents and now it says my laptop is full", "My PC says "Same IP detected in network", what does that mean?".
Yeah, that's going to save SO much money....
@Nick Ryan I have to say that I agree. This has all the hallmarks of yet another attempt......
..........by management to shift the company's costs onto their employees - I would be more impressed if it was CYODWPFI. "Choose Your Own Device and We'll Pay For It".
How about discussing the realities of just how many real users would really like to spend £100's on computers and software "just" to do their job and how this is being carefully ignored by the pushers of BYOD management infrastructure who have their own agenda - i.e. sell their services.
Staff using their own mobile devices, such as phones, to access corporate resources is one thing. They own these devices already and it's extending usage of an existing resource.
Hmm...
The big questions I have are rather mundane, but pretty important:
Who will PAT test these appliances to ensure electrical safety?
How will you know that employees are only using tested hardware?
Who is responsible if a dodgy PSU or owned by a customer electrocutes someone?
Who is responsible if a laptop battery goes on fire?
What will the insurers say if employee hardware causes a fire?
Do you really want employees groping round under a desk to plug/unplug their own devices - how do you make sure they don't exceed the load of the desk and take the whole lot out. (I remember desktop support days dealing with failed desk power supplies because a external consultant had unplugged everyone to plug in their own laptop, another time when a fan heater had been plugged in and tripped a load of desks.)
Like I say, all pretty boring stuff, but it needs to be thought out before it becomes an issue...
Seeing as I don't own a smart phone or laptop/tablet/netbook, I would have to spend a fair amount of money for BYOD. And more importantly on the cost front, who pays for the data/calls to non-inclusive minutes etc, and is there an assumption that all staff will have expensive all you can eat data & calls tariffs for their personal use anyway?
The new Office Garage series:
