IP Communications Featured Articles

2013 saw a lot of headlines when it came to bring your own device (BYOD). There’s a decent divide amongst companies on whether BYOD is useful, beneficial and, most importantly, safe and secure.

A report from CDW (News - Alert) found that a whopping 92 percent of IT pros encountered challenges when it came to employees using personal devices on corporate networks. Challenges surrounded mostly security issues, such as network access and performance maintenance.

With the flux of mobile devices becoming the norm, employees are now using their mobile devices at the office, so much that businesses are starting to scrutinize their policies on BYOD.

Consumer-turned-employee devices are impacting IT in ways managers weren’t expecting. Networks have to be more secure, yet run efficiently. Any information stored in the cloud that needs to be accessed should be accessed easily, but, for the sake of repetition, needs to be secure. Employees who need the access should be able to have it, no matter what device they’re on.

One perk of having employees use their own device is that for every employee who uses his or her own smartphone or laptop, that's one less item that the business needs to purchase and maintain. The cost benefit is no mystery, however, security controls such as data-loss prevention, anti-malware and encryption shouldn’t be overlooked, especially in IP communication platforms.

One question to consider is, should an employee decide to use his or her own device to access company networks, will that compromise his or her personal data?

This will likely be a big debate in 2014. IT is accountable for corporate data but may not necessarily be able to account for the devices that contain corporate data. The line is easily blurred and that, for IT departments, is a challenge in the legal department.

Believe it or not, an IP communications system can be of assistance when it comes to maintaining a BYOD program.

A hosted PBX (News - Alert) phone system, for example, like AireSpring’s AirePBX, enables end-user's to make and receive calls using their business identity, from their personal smartphones (BYOD). This will empowers the mobile workforce, as they will have all the functionality of using an office PBX phone on the road, safely and securely, all on their own device.

As the trend to BYOD increases in 2014, organizations are looking for ways to control smartphone usage and costs. With the right IP communications solution, IT departments can track and manage mobile usage even on personal devices.