There are advantages
to the BYOD (bring your own device) movement, otherwise known as mobile devices
in the workplace. For myself, I feel
that one advantage of using mobile devices in business is having access to all
3 of my email accounts on my smartphone. With that same device, I can also be
in touch with my family through texting during the day. Letting people bring their devices to work
can make them more productive, especially for people who travel for a
living. Smartphones and tablets are a
lot easier and lighter to take with you on a business trip.
Some disadvantages or challenges of the BYOD movement are
security-related. For example, most
people don’t keep their virus software up to date. Even if mobile devices such as tablets, are tightly
managed, hackers always seem to find ways around the best security software. In
addition, mobile devices can be breached and sensitive data can be accessed,
stolen, and sold to the highest bidder.
There is also the risk that an employee can knowingly or
unknowingly take out company data from the workplace on their mobile
device. If the device goes home, other
family members can read company information.
Even more scary, is if the mobile phone or tablet uses an app like
Dropbox or iCloud, that data can be compromised.Although we haven’t put it in place yet in my workplace, we bought mobile device management (MDM) software called Airwatch to manage all mobile devices. According to their web site, they state that “With AirWatch, you can manage a diverse fleet of Android, Apple iOS, BlackBerry, Mac OS, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Windows PC/RT and Windows Phone devices from a single management console”.
http://www.air-watch.com/solutions/mobile-device-management
In conclusion, there
has to be a happy medium when it comes to managing mobile devices. If the workplace is too restrictive, it
defeats the purpose of having them, which is to be more productive.
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