The bring your own device (BYOD) trend is one that customers are seeing as almost unstoppable with end users driving the agenda.
As a result of the growth of BYOD many CIOs are having to embrace it and are viewing it as a way of saving money although considerations of the security risks are rising, according to research from CIO Connect.
Nick Kirkland, CEO at CIO Connect, said that in its last survey of the market BYOD had emerged as a major theme and that had continued with more companies making it an option for staff.
He said that although it posed risks to organisations forcing them to ensure data was protected it was being seen by some as a way of cutting costs.
"A number of CIOs are seeing it as a way of saving money. When it comes to necessary security it changes the conversation and the CIO must be sure it is working," he said.
The theme of BYOD as a main talking point at a Check point roundtable earlier this month where vendors, resellers and lawyers agreed that a strategy must be formally rolled out and security put at the top of the list before staff were encouraged to bring in their own devices.
Consumerization of IT has been taking place in universities for years. 30,000 students show up at the beginning of a school year with their laptops and need safe/secure network access -- without compromising the integrity of the network. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from the EDU market on how to manage the risk of known, registered, and unknown devices on a network.
Network Access Control and Mobile Device Management are now considered the 2 key solutions enabling a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy.
MDM ensures the integrity of the device. NAC provisions network access based on the risk profile of the device and its user.
Throughout 2011 we have seen IT professionals respond to the influx of consumer devices and a recent survey has revealed that 53% of IT professionals in the UK have already implemented desktop virtualisation solutions to support the diverse range of devices that employees are bringing into the workplace.
It’s believed that BYOD schemes will offer greater flexibility in the workplace and deliver reduced IT and / or business costs. At Citrix we’ve achieved 20% cost savings since introducing an internal BYOD scheme three years ago, owing to fewer desktop support requests and less incident reports as employees purchase and maintain their own work devices.
Yet the increasing popularity of BYOD policies, being driven by users, means 2012 will be a year of consolidation for the channel with partners witnessing less desktop devices being purchased under corporate-wide contracts. As the number of purchased devices decreases, it will become more obvious there are fewer discounts available in the channel and rising pressure on margins. This will put pressure on the channel to remain relevant and create a role for itself as a trusted advisor to organisations on BYOD schemes.