Hampshire council throws BYOD party, hires extra security Hampshire county council is to begin rolling out a bring your own device (BYOD) scheme later this year. The council has already begun trialling a programme of allowing staff to use personal devices for business tasks with a view to a wider implementation across the organisation in the autumn. The trial is investigating what …
If they could actually manage to empty the bins on the right day it would be a good start. Then maybe some thought into building some North <-> South strong road infrastructure instead of craming motorways down narrow winding country lanes.
To be fair, reporting fly tipping online is normally cleared within a couple of days, unless they delete your request and pretend it never arrived.
just how is BYOD meant to be a step forward for any industry/public body with more than a handful of employees?
They are already admitting that it will require extra security and possibly apps to be run on smartphones and tablets (and just how is using the 4" screen on a smartphone going to provide ANY productivity). Can anyone explain to me how this is better than laptops/netbooks with a consistent TESTED security model?
This is pandering to the directors' need for the latest shiny writ large and anyone who has been involved in the support headaches that causes will be building a new bunker for when BYOD comes in.
BYOD is a foolish idea, keeping everything organised is what is needed, giving employees the SAME device means one config.
SUPPORT for BYOD is fine, but only as a second to providing equipment
(i.e. supply them a linux desktop and an android phone, if they want iPhones and Macs, then they can use their own device)
So why then are organisations even considering BYOD and not just sticking with the tried and tested models of single instance configs as you recommend?
It's because the old laptop model has a) no flexibility b) Doesn't meet the requirements of the current / future generation of users.
Let me give you an example to illustrate. I worked recently with a company that spent a vast sum on providing every member of staff with a laptop, single instance, locked down. Result - the staff have pushed back from day one because the security model is preventing them from working flexibly rather than facilitating it.
Secondly, the poster above says this is pandering to the execs, well initially maybe that was true, but not any more and not for some time now. Just look at the number of tablet sales worldwide recently. That's translating to a very IT literate population - not only the younger users who are coming through, but this is also being seen in demographics traditionally averse to IT - our older users for example. So, how is that relevant? Well, it means the user population is far more demanding and critical of corporate IT than they ever were before. In the past corporate IT was way ahead of the typical home setup, but that's no longer the case either. With that in mind, organisations who don't start to bring their IT into line with user expectations are either going to experience user dissatisfaction or even struggle to bring on talent compared to organisations that do.
So is BYOD the be all and end all? No of course not, but if done right, many of the concerns listed above re: Data are negated anyway - i.e. use centrally delivered apps - i.e. hosted, vdi, daas (no data left on the device anyway) or if you must put apps on the device use apps that are designed with that kind of functionality built in - i.e remote management, remote kill (control the data if needed).
So to summarise - the laptop single image model = legacy, high cost, high maintenance, low flexibility, potentially low user satisfaction
BYOD = current, high flexibility, potentially lower management, device cost can be deferred to the user if you choose, increased user satisfaction.
Just my several cents worth :)
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1) An iPhone or iPad is AES-256 encrypted by default.
2) And supports VPN (Cisco and others) by default.
3) And if you connect an iDevice to an Exchange server it can be remote wiped (did you know that dudes?)
Looking good so far.
Although mandating strong lock/password/wipe policies is going to be necessary. Oh, that's there too. For free.
I'm not sure about Android in all fairness.
In many large organisations the more tech savvy people already find ways of doing lots of the stuff that BYOD makes official. It's just that now consultants can sell something that already exists in the guise of security and "Think of the children!"
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