The industry is full of jargon, BYOD, CYOD and even GWYG, for describing the use of devices in the workplace. While Bring Your Own Device has benefits for employers as well as employees there are also considerable concerns from employers and IT departments in particular. There are also a number of strategic considerations.
Agile Working, as a form of mobile working, introduces additional security threats to those arising from office based working. A number of recent surveys have highlighted security threats as being one of the greatest concerns for businesses adopting agile working especially those using personal devices. It is essential that the security risks of Agile Working are addressed.
While the alluring variety of mobile devices grabs the agile working technology headlines more important is how these devices are connected effectively to corporate information systems. There is a range of ways to provide IT Infrastructure to effectively support Agile Working.
One of the problems of discussing new ways of working is the number of terms used to describe it: Agile Working, Smart Working, Flexible Working Mobile Working, Remote Working etc. I present a personal glossary and a commentary on their use.
‘Bring your Own Device’ (BYOD) is one of the most talked subjects in IT. With BYOD, employees are allowed to bring their own device (smart phone, tablet and laptops) and connect them to the corporate network and company services and use them for their work. Employees often feel more comfortable using their own devices, especially when they are superior to the equipment provided by their employer. To date the benefits of BYOD are mainly focussed on choice and convenience for employees and cost savings for employers but there are potentially much greater gains from introducing radical new ways of working that BYOD enables.