BYOD, a growing tendency

By 2016 approximately 38% of companies will build on users' personal devices as a business tool.
New opportunities and new concerns for CIOs

With the practice of BYOD (bring your own device) which becomes increasingly popular, with 38% of companies expect that by 2016 will cease to provide devices to their employees. And 'the result that emerges from a 'global survey conducted by analyst firm Gartner in the audience of CIOs.

David Willis, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said: "In the world of business BYOD strategies are the most radical change in the economies and culture of the client computing happened in decades. The benefits of BYOD include the creation of new opportunities in the labor force Mobile, increasing employee satisfaction and reducing or avoiding costs. "

Gartner defines BYOD strategy as an alternative strategy that allows employees, business partners, and to other users to use a device chosen and purchased personally to access applications and enterprise data. Traditionally, the affected devices are smartphones and tablets, but the BYOD strategy can also be applied to the notebook. Finally BYOD strategies can predict whether or not a grant from the company.

Willis says: "The business reason for the BYOD, however, requires a better evaluation. Many leaders do not understand the benefits and only 22% believe that it has developed a strong business case. Like the other elements of the 'Nexus of Forces' (Cloud, Mobile, Social and Information), the mobile initiatives are often exploratory without having a target figure and definable, making me uncomfortable planners of IT. Offering BYOD is important to take advantage of the opportunity to show the rest of ' organization the benefits it will bring to them and the business. "

The BYOD is happening in companies and government agencies of all sizes, but takes hold to a greater extent in medium to large organizations (with revenues of $ 500 million to U.S. $ 5 billion and a number of employees from 2500 to 5000). The practice of BYOD enables smaller companies to put in place resources for the work on the move without having to affrntare large investments for devices and services.

The adoption of this model varies quite sensitive around the globe. U.S. companies are more inclined (more than twice) to allow BYOD than European firms, where this phenomenon shows the lowest adoption of all regions. The labor force in India, China and Brazil is more inclined to use a personal device, typically a standard mobile phone, in the workplace.

It is critical the way a BYOD program should provide subsidies or not the use of the personal device and is an element capable of changing considerably the economies involved. Today, roughly half of the programs BOYD provides a partial refund, with the full reimbursement of all costs incurred by the user / employee who becomes increasingly rare. In this regard, Willis observes: "The company is expected to cover only the costs of the service plan on a smartphone. What happens if you purchase a device to an employee and this leaves the job next month? How do you solve the matter? And 'better to keep simple things: the employee owns his device and the company helps to cover the costs of use. "

The BYOD increases, however, the risks and outline expectations for CIOs. Not surprisingly, security is the main concern associated with BYOD. The risk of a leak of data on mobile platforms is in fact particularly acute for various reasons, by the act intentional to accidental cause. IT is still keeping up with the BYOD phenomenon with more than half of the organizations that believe they have a high security of corporate data on mobile devices owned by employees. This new confidence in the safety to support BYOD is a reflection of the budget of tools and processes more matrui that respond to a wide variety of needs in the field of information security.

"It is reaching the point where IT officially recognizes what has happened since forever: people use their device for business purposes not working. Often make use of a personal device to work. Once everything is recognized, we understand that we must protect the data in a different way from closing the device completely. E 'essential that IT specify which platforms are supported and how, what levels of service you should expect the user, what are the responsibilities and risks that must be met and a set of guidelines on the features that must have devices purchased by employees for use at work, "he concluded Willis.