back to article Want to bring your own PC?

There’s a problem brewing in the workplace - employees want to bring to work aspects of technology that they use in their personal life, be it their mobile phones, laptops or even just specific applications. If businesses haven’t come up against this consumerisation already, the chances are that they will, sooner rather than …

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  1. Rebajas
    Thumb Down

    Title goes here...

    Not sure I'd want business data on personal devices - in case those devices are lost or the employee leaves the company.

    1. The BigYin

      Err...

      ....so all your systems run encryption and will only connect to authenticated devices? Laptops are chained to desks? USB is disabled? There is no VPN (except to a few locked down units)? Any employee taking *any* business device home for *any* reason is subject to summary dismissal?

      Because unless all the answer to all the above is "Yes", then you have no hope in hell of keeping "business data" within the company should an employee choose to lift it. And even then I don't fancy your chances.

      I'd be more worried about personal data on corporate systems. My personal devices are leagues more secure than anything my company provides me.

    2. IsJustabloke
      Stop

      Actually...

      ...its more along the lines of I don't want business stuff on MY personal devices.

      There SHOULD be a clear seperation...

      stuff required for me to do my work is supplied by work

      stuff required for me to play/do stuff in my own time is supplied by me.

      Never the twain should meet.

  2. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Bring anything you like

    ... so long as you realise it is not insured - either for loss/damage or for any damage it does to the company or its employees. Also bear in mind that under no circumstances whatsoever can you connect it to the company network.

    Whether we require it to be PAT tested (at your expense, 'natch) will depend on how much we like you.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Correction..

      Bring whatever technology you like into the office. Connect it to my network and you'll be packing up your desk by the end of the day, perhaps minus a few teeth if you caused any loss of data.

      It's a simple concept: the business is responsible for every single connected device on it's networks. That includes all your torrents of the latest movies, music you pirated from some Spanish website, your pr0n stash, and your various bugs and trojans that might be on your (badly maintained) home pc/laptop/whatever.

      1. James O'Shea

        it's not _your_ network

        It's _the company's_ network. You, as admin, _will_ run the network as per _the company's_ policies. And, in particular, if you actually assault any members of staff you will find yourself not merely unemployed, but arrested.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          @James O'Shea

          Ah yes, the typical "I'll take it as read, get pissed off, misread the context, and feel threatened" response.

          Relax. So long as you don't break company policy regarding business use of the network and company systems, I won't send security to your desk to taze and/or escort you out of the building.

          You've never worked for a secure environment I take it.

          The bottom line is, you do not bring your cobbled-together, unprotected, infected, pr0n-fulled, IP violating box anywhere near my network. If you do, expect to be tazed and sent home with a pink slip. And yes, since I head up both networks and security, I can (and do) consider you a security risk and thus will ensure your termination when you pull that kinda crap.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Pat testing at my expense?

      Why bother? ebay sells 100 labels for a quid, and I have my own biro.

  3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    In reality

    Developers not allowed to bring in their own laptops to check online docs etc

    Managers allowed to take their company laptops home, lend them tot he kids for a bit of downloading, log onto all the services through un-encrypted wifi at every airport, exempt from having any sort of password for anything - because it slows them down.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's called

      Failure of IT. You probably have a CEO that's clueless and insists on whatever his management team says is ok.. and CTO/IT Director that's been neutered.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Going independent

    A number of our sales staff have gone independent and the usual weapon of choice is a MacBook Pro, running a Windows virtual machine for essential corporate stuff. It's tempting. When I'm working remotely with customers for weeks at a time, I'd much rather have my MacBook (and Aperture, instead of PSE) than my beat up, sub par corporate Dell. There are issues though:

    - If my Dell dies on site, guess who's problem it is (hint: it's not mine and I don't care)

    - According to the letter of the law, though shall not use none corporate equipment (sales staff of course laugh in the face of the letter of the law.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's becoming more common

    Only because IT is locking down desktops and the tail is increasingly wagging the dog.

    We are currently having trouble with our outsourced IT arm refusing to grant access to certain programs (manufacturer's pump selection, hydraulic calculation software) we used previously under our own IT support but with outsourcing we have seen a lot of software removed from the approved list. The only way to be able to use this software is to load it onto your personal laptop and bring it in.

    When IT is outsourced it becomes profit driven and instead of the aim being to help the business perform, the aim of IT becomes providing the least amount of support for the money they charge and testing becomes a computer based does it work exercise instead of understanding how people use it and why they need it rather than including a proram on a list based on cost. IT is a support function helping a business, not a driving function dictating how to conduct business. It's like car manufacturers making increasingly fast cars but speed limits are coming down and they're now lower than the 60s. Computers can do so much more than they used to 20 years but they are becoming more locked down until you're left with a glorified typewriter.

    So the view of IT from outside becomes that of an untrusting arm of the business stifling performance and looking after their network to charge more money for doing less by banning more and more devices and programs which leads people to take the law into their own hands an bring their own kit in to perform the job theyu used to do until this new IT outfit turned up.

    That's the view from the other side of the fence, downvote away!

    1. SirTainleyBarking
      Troll

      I'd suggest that

      If your outsourced IT is stopping you using certain business specific software, its time to have a quiet word and either get them to see sense (or the bean counters who pay the bills at least)

      or tell 'em to sling their hook.

      The plague of outsourcing, dontcha just love it

  6. Martin Usher
    Unhappy

    Its the work kit...

    Time was that the work PC was some super fast devices with all the bells and whistles and the home PC was whatever junk you could cobble together. Times have changed. The work PC is now a creaky old PoS with insufficient memory and a grotty display and the home machine is the spiffy system.

    I'm contemplating bringing in my own monitor. The one I was issued with is crap, I've been staring at it for years and its doing my eyes in, but requests for a new one are met with the drawing in of breath and mutterings about "being economical". I've got better ones lying around in the closet waiting to be recylcled (they're flat panels, of course); the only reason why I don't just bring it in is that the IT people would have a cow and I don't want to 'give' them stuff -- they're supposed to be paying me, not the other way around. (In today's business climate it appears that having a job is doing you a favor....)

  7. Christian Berger

    For half a year the only way to get a working computer

    At work we only have DOS-based word processing systems. To write my diploma thesis I seriously had to get my own computer to do the data-processing.

    Later I got something which must have escaped a land-fill. A hideous conglomerate of non-standard low quality PC components. About as robust as an AMD K6-III overclocked, with bad capacitors and a VIA chipset.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    No problem....

    ..stick your laptop on the network and it gets the corp AV & asset tracking software on it, other AV's will be removed. even if you've paid for them. After that you have about 15 minutes to disconnect it or it gets encrypted. Many other programs will get removed by default, again, we don't care if you've paid for them or not.

    Connect your WinMo or iPhone? Put it on the network and get it encyrpted and policied (read bricked).

    If your hardware gets ****** up because you stick it on the network. Tough shit. your problem.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Company owes you the resources you need to do your job

    The only time I've brought equipment into the office is for use on 3G to get around tiresome and ultimately pointless internet restrictions. I'd never dream of sullying it by connecting to the corporate network.

    If the company isn't providing me the necessary resources to do my job, my job doesn't get done. That, and complaining loud enough generally solve these sorts of problems.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    not discussed

    Management sould make it clear what equipemnt is needed and /or what access should be granted, for a certain task/role.

    If your Dell does what it was intended to do, then your only reason for using your own ipad/tab or whatever is vanity. If you disagree you should bring a business case to the management to be discussed, not just bring in your own kit cause you prefer to show off. (Though when I see an ipad I just think "TW T".

    Securing access using MAC address should help, but is very admin intensive.

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