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8 Considerations for a Successful BYOD deployment
Published Nov 9, 2015
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The concept of BYOD is less than a decade old but it's already outlived its adolescent buzz and is now a trend that has matured into a market worth billions. A recent study carried out by MarketsandMakets revealed that the BYOD market is increasing at an annual compound rate of more than 25% a year. This puts the enterprise mobility market at $266.17 billion in 2019.
The advantages and challenges of BYOD go hand-in-hand
Deployed successfully, the advantages of BYOD include increased productivity, lower costs and overall employee satisfaction. This is particularly true for organisations with remote workforces – giving employees the flexibility to log in and access information easily with mobile devices means less frustration for the employees and ultimately more productivity. The same is true of onsite employees when they bring their own mobile devices and also for guests or partners who attend meetings.
But the enterprise also needs to ensure that the devices, apps and information being used are secure. That's the balance that needs to be struck for a successful BYOD strategy. Putting in place a policy that's too restrictive in terms of devices and apps supported or technology that's difficult to use, is unlikely to get buy-in from employees. Gartner estimates that by 2016, 20 percent of enterprise BYOD programs will fail due to enterprise deployment of mobile device management measures being too restrictive.
So how can businesses reap the advantages and avoid the pitfalls of BYOD?
Considerations for a successful BYOD strategy
1. Devices
The first thing to think about is what devices to support because supporting mobile devices is very different to supporting desktops. Unlike desktops, software for mobile devices are updated every few months. Moreover, employees will have favourite brands which they'll want to use, but you have to be realistic about what the IT department's resources can realistically support and make a balanced decision about which devices you'll support.
2. Apps
There's no doubt that organisations are benefiting from giving employees access to mobile applications such as email, browser, collaboration tools, document management and remote desktop access, but some applications come with a risk. In the 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report by Verizon, researchers from FireEye analyzed more than 7 million mobile apps to find that 96% of mobile malware was targeted at the Android platform. They also found that more than 5 billion downloaded Android apps are vulnerable to remote attacks[iii].
With a marketplace saturated with not only mobile devices but also with a slew of apps, it is imperative that your strategy addresses the risks that each of these individual factors presents to your IT infrastructure.
3. Access
Implementing a robust SSL VPN and Network Access Control (NAC) solution is a must for organisations adopting BYOD to protect the enterprise network. Role-based, application level security policy enforcement will allow enterprises to manage and monitor mobile device sessions via on-premises networks as well as over secure VPN.
Your BYOD policy also needs to extend to guests, visitors and business partners that your employees need to collaborate with. A NAC solution that offers granular control over guest network access will allow your employees to share data without compromising your network.
4. Usability
One of the main reasons why many BYOD and remote access programs fail is because they're simply too complex. The first priority in terms of usability should be the successful and efficient on-boarding of users - if connectivity is too complex, productivity will suffer. A NAC solution that offers automated configuration and a unified desktop client that can help to streamline the overall user experience will help with both on-boarding and connectivity.
5. Security
Across countless surveys the number one perceived inhibitor to widespread BYOD adoption is security, followed closely by compliance issues. This is not an ungrounded fear, as the use of enterprise apps on employee-owned mobile devices may lead to new data leakage and connectivity issues. To that end, any device accessing your corporate network should be viewed as a potential risk. Security also covers the issue of loss of devices which, more often than not, means a loss of data.
Although all the major device manufacturers now include optional encryption across smartphone and tablet devices, there is still uncertainty over managing BYOD and while EMM (see below) plays a part in supporting security, so too does the right company culture.
6. The actual policy and EMM
A BYOD policy is comprised of several aspects. The first is compliance with any industry requirements such as regulatory issues within healthcare, financial services and public sector. The policy also needs to give employees access to the underlying application and business processes they need. Lastly, any policy needs to be backed up by enforcement and management tools - this is where Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) comes in. EMM can help define what can be enforced within a BYOD policy and help create processes for dealing with issues such as when devices are lost, stolen or misused or indeed when an employee leaves.
7. Culture
Considering over half of security breaches are the result of human error[iv], a successful BYOD transition requires enterprises to evangelise the benefits and promote its use to deliver the promised advantages of increased productivity and employee satisfaction. But this is also about educating users about the impact of data losses and developing a culture of responsibility for mobile devices and the data they house.
8. The future
The last consideration is flexibility. With the BYOD concept less than a decade old, it is critical that enterprises heading down this path consider technologies that are relatively open and able to support the widest ecosystem of applications possible both now and in years to come.
BYOD is complex but enterprises who avoid taking ownership of it not only won't benefit from the advantages but could also be introducing further risk by turning a blind eye to unofficial BYOD practices that can open up the network to serious security threats. A BYOD policy is becoming a must for most enterprises.
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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