Security issues involved with bring your own device (BYOD) policies have been a hot topic in the IT community for some time, but companies have allowed such policies to persist, assuming that they offered a significant cost savings. Now, a new article from Enterprise Apps Tech’s James Bourne presents a different story than the one that companies have assumed to be true.
Noel Massey, a solutions architect at Motorola (News - Alert), told the Apps World Europe enterprise track that there is no “conclusive” data to support the idea that BYOD saves money. There are definite pros and cons as to the BYOD module, but Massey feels the bad overshadows the good. The pros to using the BYOD system are cost savings, improved morale among employees and increased employee productivity. The cons, however, are security, loss of control, support difficulties, and legal and testing issues.
Massey has stated that there is no universal answer for best practices in enterprise app development. He say that there are four processes that companies should consider. The first is to expect change, because change is inevitable. Second, companies need to know the total cost of ownership. Third, they need to make sure that the customer-facing and employee-facing app development teams are in communication. Fourth, they need to realize that cross-platform solutions are what are desired in most situations.
Beyond the usual fears of poor security on personal devices, close to three million personal devices are lost or stolen each year, making it a “strong possibility that confidential information can be leaked and cause damage to both the individual and the company.” For companies that are intent on BYOD, Collin Hachwi, the IT manager at Digital Intelligence Systems, LLC, offered some BYOD guidelines in his guest piece for TMCnet.
Edited by Rachel Ramsey