The beginning of BYOD

We have all experienced the profound impact of smart devices on our lives. Ever since Apple released their first iPhone in 2007, the market for portable mobile devices has skyrocketed in growth and gross revenue. Nowadays, smartphones and tablet devices are making a total net worth of over 250 billion dollars each year to all technology companies globally. This estimate really shows for itself how much the marketplace been transformed in a direction of digital transformation and smart innovation in this short space of time. It also tells us a lot about the widespread use of smart devices all over the world and the big potential in them to serve as a business tool for connecting employees and businesses for the greater good.

Today, we see trends like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) becoming more mainstream amongst small and mid-sized companies thanks to the high accessibility and the mass use of smart devices by the general public. This is basically helping organizations save on purchasing expensive hardware to perform their day-to-day tasks, by giving them a viable cost-effective alternative. BYOD makes it possible for smaller companies to operate remotely, without having to buy large fleets of laptops or to invest in pricey on-premise technology that deploys their virtual desktops. 

There a lot of benefits to BYOD as a model that saves companies money and makes their employees more productive simultaneously. However, there are also some downsides to it that need to be considered when thinking about utilizing this approach without an underlying cloud migration strategy. Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) is the best solution in the marketplace that goes hand in hand with BYOD for better business results.

What are the challenges with BYOD?

There are some well-known challenges with using the BYOD model for your workplace, with data compliance issues being the real frontrunner amongst them. Smartphones and tablets which are used for both personal use and work purposes can impose a serious risk on the integrity of the company data, stored in the devices, if not safeguarded properly. Accessing suspicious applications or phishing links outside the working hours can negatively impact the security of your confidential data. Nevertheless, when BYOD is used hand in hand with DaaS, your data will be safely stored in a cloud server, rather than multiple physical devices. This guarantees you the protection of your company information, which your cloud provider is looking after as part of their routine infrastructure monitoring practices. Any suspicious attempts to jeopardize your data via malware, ransomware, or else will be caught by an expert team in the early stages, and not letting it affect your data integrity whatsoever. Your employees can safely access their cloud desktops from their portable devices from everywhere, without worrying about their personal applications and stored system files.

Dangerous apps

BYOD is a great cost-effective model which can present major challenges to employers if not utilized sensibly. What this means is that personal smart devices can pose a risk to company data through malicious applications, phishing on customers in every corner of the web. End users who download suspicious apps or browse streaming channels that can threaten your company data are often unaware of the impact their operations can have down the line. Educating them about the potential threats is a possibility, but limiting the personal usage of their smart devices is near impossible. This makes the BYOD model harder to be in control of if you want to eliminate the risk of putting your data under threat from malware or other phishing attacks. Once again, Desktop-as-a-Serves comes in handy for those who want to stick to BYOD but have better peace of mind that their data is in safe hands at all times.

Harder to service

Smart mobile devices are notoriously difficult to maintain and keep up to date with the latest software or patches. A lot of the operating systems may not be able to support certain applications, while others end up being harder to perform maintenance on overall. On the other hand, IT departments are often overburdened with numerous tasks, along with regular updates and patching. This explains why servicing mobile phones and tablets just adds a whole another level of hardship to their existing workload. By choosing to move to the cloud and provision your desktop workstation from a third-party provider, you give your IT staff the needed breather from their duties regarding updates and maintenance. This way, they can focus on their core function and not worry about system security and misfortunate data breach incidents, as a result of poor BYOD utilization.

Choosing a cloud provider that you can trust is of major importance when you want to be doing a Bring Your Own Device model of remote working for your business. we-IT offers companies a comprehensive desktop solution that takes away all the worries from employees and employers that their end devices may cause to them.

If you are interested in finding out more about our cloud services and how you can use BYOD along with DaaS, you can get in touch with our team and we will come back to you shortly!