Dwight Watt - Newspaper Article #205 6/19/2013


Question: What is a BYOD?

Answer:

BYOD is Bring Your Own Device. What it means is you bring your own computing device such as a laptop to a place, such as work.

Up until recently if you used a computer at work (desktop or laptop) your employer supplied you with the computer. Fifteen years ago individually owned computers were not common and having a personal portable computer was rarer. Today almost everyone has a personal computer (desktop or laptop and may well own both. We do stuff all the time on the computer whether work or personal at home or work.

Many people get used to using their personal laptop or tablet and now want to just use it while working also. Companies are beginning to allow people to bring their person computing devices and hook in the corporate network. There were concerns on the security and viruses when using personal machines, but many organizations have developed policies in their networks to make this less of a problem. There are also concerns on security of corporate information.

Now the concerns in the corporate world are how to deal with BYOD. Some organizations have started no longer supplying computers for their employees and it is the employee’s responsibility to get a computer and also to maintain it. Companies are see potential savings here.

I have recently seen projections that by 2016 about 40% of computers used in the corporate world will be BYOD. I fully expect we will see a lot of growth in BYOD especially with sales people who need their machines in the office and on the road. However I expect we will continue to see computers supplied by corporate in most cases as there as re security issues of corporate stuff on the computer and what happens if you cease to work for the company. Since it is your device they cannot just wipe it out as it will have your own information on it and may not be backed up and the question of what if you have a backup of corporate information that was on it.