‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) policies are already common within business organizations. Despite concerns about issues such as possible security breaches, internal management or device management, companies are discovering that the advantages of BYOD outweigh the disadvantages. In this sense, the Markets and Markets consultancy has defined the last 3 trends in the BYOD business mobility policy.
Thus, according to the study, North American companies are leaders in what is about to become a global movement towards BYOD. Markets and Markets states that the adoption rates of BYOD in the United States were 36% at the beginning of 2017 and that they will reach 50% by the beginning of 2018.
What are the advantages of BYOD for employees?
According to a Sapho research, the worker saves about 81 minutes per week in productivity by using their own device at work, and 78% of employees say that BYOD policies support a better work-life balance. This report also highlights that a BYOD plan saves organizations $ 1,300 a year in device and software costs. The combination of all these factors is driving companies to define strategies for the implementation of BYOD policies.
The Last 3 Trends in the BYOD Business Mobility Policy
Innovation and emerging trends help organizations to approach an ideal work environment in which employees use their personal devices to increase productivity and minimize costs and security risks. Taking into account these challenges, we have been able to define the last 3 trends in the BYOD business mobility policy:
1.- Costs managed through cloud solutions
The costs of BYOD policies are considerably lower than company-owned device networks. Increasingly, organizations are using cloud solutions to manage BYOD, because they provide scalable services that are more cost-effective and do not have any additional hardware or security to manage.
These cloud-based services also simplify the administration and maintenance of the company’s IT. The cloud is also envisioned as a solution to provide better data storage for company workers. Thus, these solutions in the cloud have two key benefits: workers get access to the storage space without restrictions by the specifications of their devices, and at the same time they have an additional security for the data.
2.- Transition to device control
In 2018, unified device management solutions will offer the ability to manage mobile and desktop devices, as well as other IT assets, including corporate applications. These solutions will simplify IT management processes and offer greater flexibility in the integration of applications and software and will reinforce the security of the devices.
3.- Improvement of security, driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Security is always the biggest challenge facing BYOD devices. User activity is the most common cause of security breaches, but IT departments can also be affected by the inclusion of many different devices, operating systems, and software versions that exist simultaneously in a single business environment.
However, 2018 will mark the beginning of security in BYOD policies at a scale that companies have not yet seen thanks to machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which will allow the discovery of undetected malware and other possible vulnerabilities.
In conclusion, many companies consider that BYOD is the best option for the management of enterprise mobile devices. Taking into account the multiple efforts that are being carried out to develop better software and BYOD security, the adoption of this business mobility policy will continue to grow in the coming years.