Check out this post by VPN Haus that tackles the cost savings aspect of BYOD. They argue that BYOD can be expensive and isn’t always a cost savings initiative. There are a few issues with this article that I’d like to address, starting with the cost issue.
BYOD isn’t just about saving money, it’s also about making employees happy. I have not met a knowledge worker that looks forward to getting their new clunky Dell or Lenovo laptop, especially if they travel. Having the ability to empower the worker to bring their own device allows for cost savings in a number of areas, including forcing them to handle their own basic break/fix support. In my case, I don’t call IT when I have a laptop problem. I make an appointment with a Genius (and I can sit face-to-face with that genius in virtually every city I travel to around the globe). I’m a happy camper because I carry a light load when I travel, my device works everywhere, and my work is kept secure.
The other item that struck me as funny was the investments in infrastructure that companies would have to make. Frankly, I think this was true five years ago because IT has transitioned to a service-based model whereby the ever-changing end devices have forced us to remain as independent as possible as applications outlive the devices we run them from. We don’t tend to think about software and tools that only work on one device, we code for as many devices as possible to mitigate endpoint issues and decrease long-term interface-related maintenance costs. If your company is just now starting to think about things like VPNs, information governance, and identity management, you are way behind and your competitors will leap-frog you. IT as a Hindrance (ITaaH) models affect the business’s ability to execute.
Here’s the irony: small businesses get this. They lack the security know-how and ability to execute, but they absolutely get that using an ITaaS model coupled with BYOD saves them loads of cash and allows them to scale with a much smaller investment.
VPN Haus is correct that adopting BYOD ≠ money in the bank. Absolutes rarely exist. It’s a different mode of delivering IT services to employees, and requires a fundamental shift in how your CIO thinks about IT.
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