According to a new study by CompTIA, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) is a trend on the downturn.
The survey conducted in April and May of 375 U.S. IT professionals in various private businesses found that 53% allowed no BYOD, up significantly from 34% in 2013. The BYOD findings were published recently in a comprehensive CompTIA report, “Building Digital Organizations,” that tracked the influences of mobile devices and cloud computing on businesses. “Cloud and mobility represent a true revolution,” the report said, noting that the two technologies represent 100% of all growth in IT spending in 2015. Wireless data spending globally will be $536 billion, while sales of smartphones and tablets will reach $484 billion; overall cloud spending will reach $118 billion.
“It’s not quite the death of BYOD, but there does seem to be a decrease in the use of BYOD in enterprises,” said Tim Herbert, senior vice president for research and market intelligence for CompTIA, a nonprofit IT trade association, which conducted the survey.
The CompTIA report noted that even when companies ban BYOD, “ambitious employees will find ways to utilize personal devices and applications even if they are forbidden.”
“There is a clear move towards a policy of no BYOD,” the report stated. Companies find they can pursue mobility initatives just as well by providing mobile devices to workers “who are often happy to take a corporate device if it is the same thing they would choose on their own.” No BYOD means that a company provides smartphones and tablets to workers and bans the use of personal devices for work. This mentality is paving the way for a new device management scenario: Choose-Your-Own-Device (CYOD)
With CYOD being implemented as policy in place of BYOD, workers are getting more of the devices they want from their companies so there’s less motivation to circumvent IT. “A lot of the original motivation behind BYOD was by users wanting to replace older style corporate devices like BlackBerry, with newer iPhones in particular, but increasingly Android as well.”
In contrast, a CYOD approach requires employees to choose from a limited range of devices. For example, a company may allow employees to use BlackBerrys, iPhones or other Apple devices – but not Androids. A company also may limit device usage to work activities.
A CYOD approach provides other security options for companies with concerns about potential BYOD ramifications. Because of different issues related to multi-use devices, securing BYOD systems can be difficult. This is a key reason why CYOD is receiving so much attention in today’s business world.
If an organization controls the type of smartphone or tablet used by banning BYOD and implementing CYOD instead, it can more easily set the policies and see they are adhered to, which can result in fewer security breaches and lowered costs to deal with breaches.