BYOD cheers up staff, boosts productivity - and IT bosses hate it

Costs, security headaches and battles to get different technologies working with each other are stalling Bring-Your-Own-Device schemes in UK offices, according to new figures. In an Insight poll of 232 IT managers in Blighty, 79 per cent said they aren't implementing strategies to allow employees to buy their own kit for both …

[Anonymous Coward]

We need bullets.

I can see it makes sense at some stage in the future once the topology of networks is changed and we can health check hardware security and configuration on the run but right now its a bloody nightmare.

It's too simplistic to think it's manager being Anal that won't allow uptake, that's like criticising your boss for not allowing Russian roulette in the canteen.

I know having the wrong tools for the job or not embracing the right technology limits the user dramatically (I've drawn electronic schematics in Autocad 14 without any existing symbols because the boss didn't believe in free schematic capture).

Moving technology forward, increasing engagement and resulting efficiency is great but these uncontrolled devices shoehorned into existing network security models is madness IMO.

Dropbox et al, IPV6 and others are breaking the current models so we need to redesign access methods, topology and security checks. As part of that rework design-in BYOD options so we can see if the vociferous proponents of the technology actually do suddenly become happier in their job and more efficient.

[Sirius Lee]

Another Reg article banging on about BYOD

I don't care where younger worker prefer using their own devices. It's not their company, not their data and not their responsibility. That belongs to the directors. Until that changes BYOD will have absolutely no place in the workplace.

The article expresses the hoped for dream that 'security' will improve. No it will not. There is no evidence that hacking is any more difficult today than it was yesterday. That's because the weak points - you and me - are unchanged. Until we evolve some appropriate characteristics (a compulsion to snitch on our own bad behavior perhaps) we will be the constant weak point.

And anyway, it's not my experience that staff want to use their own kit. Sure the fanbois may have the latest and greatest but that's a tiny minority. The rest want to spend their cash on more fun stuff and let the company pick up the tab for workplace essential kit - which is very often better.

So, to The Register: leave it alone - there is no case. Apple and the rest will just have improve their products and make them enterprise friendly. No amount of pushing against the backdoor is going to let them in until then.

[Charles 9]

Re: Another Reg article banging on about BYOD

But like I asked before and never got an answer, that's assuming that the BYOD push comes from the BOTTOM. What if it comes from the TOP? From the CEO or other people who can basically say, "Who hired this idiot?" and actually be able to do something about it?

Remember it's only "security" until the boss is inconvenienced.

[Captain Underpants]

Re: Another Reg article banging on about BYOD

It doesn't come from the top.

Why, you ask?

Because the people at the top are already in a privileged position where they can dictate:

a) what kind of device they use (eg I don't care how expensive it is, I'm having a 13" MacBook Air with the biggest SSD available, and not some crappy underspec'd 15" Windows laptop)

b) what level of support they get (eg they and their PA will be listed as VIPs in the support system and be prioritised when calls are raised)

c) whether they get to use it as a hybrid work/personal machine (eg "I know it's not policy but I'm installing personally licensed software from my iTunes account, along with my music library, and that's that").

The only way those at the top find BYOD interesting is the "Buy Your Own Device" angle ie reducing the IT inventory spend. Generally they'll eventually change their mind when they become aware of the additional costs and overheads involved in properly supporting a fully-BYOD environment (additional licensing expenditure, increased security oversight required to reduce risk of "Data Gone Walkies" incidents, increased lead time on hardware-based support calls due to crap consumer-grade warranties rather than enterprise-class on-site support, greater variety of OS and software fauna to be supported, and that's before you even reach the Data Protection minefield that is trying to not breach someone's right to privacy on their personal machine while attempting to eg help them identify the source of a system performance problem and/or virus outbreak...). Needless to say, this awareness may in fact only come about several years after they push through a BYOD policy, at which point they would likely blame someone else for not explaining/predicting this ahead of time...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Another Reg article banging on about BYOD

"The only way those at the top find BYOD interesting is the "Buy Your Own Device" angle ie reducing the IT inventory spend."

Buy your own device and pay for the data/calls seems to be the favorite. I worked for one company that didn't have any phones on the desktop and didn't supply mobiles to lower grades or contractors either. that finally finished when there was yet another case of no-one off site dialling in to a conference call as they refused to pay for it on their personal mobiles.

Of course they COULD claim it back, but only if they submitted a copy of the bill with the work calls and the attendant costs highlighted. Most contract mobile bills won't show the cost of a call until after the monthly limit is reached, so they were told they couldn't claim!

[Frank N. Stein]

Re: Another Reg article banging on about BYOD

No one at the top cares for the opinion of those at the bottom. But how do you think all those iPhones and iPads made their way into corporate environments? Someone at the exec level insisted that theirs be set up on the corporate network. Having an exec connected to the network on personal devices makes sense. Having desk workers who have 9 to 5 desk jobs be connected 24/7, makes no sense at all, if they aren't in sales or an exec at the top level of the corporate food chain.

[Sirius]

Re: Another Reg article banging on about BYOD

In my experience there is nothing you can do - you just have to try to explain the potential problems and then go ahead and do as you are asked. I suppose in the end it is the high-up people who will have to take the flack when/if data goes missing, so perhaps they feel it's worth the risk.

[Anonymous Coward]

BYOD - Bring Your Own Disaster

Fricking nightmare. Letting users pwn their own pc and then bring it into the office.

[Anonymous Coward]

"how exactly does the employer handle data privacy and security"

"If an employer allows BYOD, how exactly does the employer handle data privacy and security"

Probably just as badly as most do today.

As part of my work, I occasionally use Wireshark to analyse malfunctioning communications between a piece of PC software and a variety of strange and wonderful automation devices.

The stuff that comes down a supposedly ordinary end user network port on an allegedly correctly configured enterprise switch is breathtaking sometimes, even more so on the odd occasions when I forget to deselect "promiscuous mode".

BYOD in this environment would be interesting. Obviously the IT department couldn't possibly be in the wrong, never mind incompetent, it would be the sniffer user that was breaking the local policy that was in the wrong. Dishonest people never break thepolicies/rules,do they.

[Frank N. Stein]

BYOD?

I've always carried my own mobile phone. I have neither the need nor desire to receive company e-mail on it, nor do I have any need to connect it to the company network, therefore, the IT Dept. has no say in me bring my phone with me on the job or anywhere else, and I'm certainly not allowing them to touch it any do anything to it, "lock down" or otherwise.

[Frank N. Stein]

Another thing...

The other point that may be missed in all this, is that an employer who's all to willing to allow you to connect your device to their network, may wish to spy on your personal activities and use that as an excuse to fire you, should some form of "budget cuts" or "cost cutting strategy" be necessary at the company. Don't think so? This is why employer's are so interested in your Facebook and Twitter details and encourage employees friending each other on social networks. Some may think it paranoid, but I've seen friends and strangers alike, fired over Facebook posts that the company did not like, an opinion expressed that they didn't support, or some post that someone assumed to mean one thing, when it meant something else entirely.

[Anonymous Coward]

BYOD = Compliance headache

The firm I work for sends and recieves data from national/local govt. One very important sentance in the ompliance docs is "the data must be held on a system that is under the full control of the organisation." How will BYOD square with this?

BYOD: like repainting your own office out of your own pocket.

[Christian Berger]

Who is the Y in BYOD?

That's actually a serious question. By now many mobile phone companies want you to sync "your" devices with their servers. Often they limit the software you can install or even reserve the right to delete just about anything from your computer.

I mean who's responsibility is is when the maker of the phone makes a mistake or even acts malevolent?