BYOD simply stands for, “Bring your Own Device” This refers to the corporate initiative which allows employees to bring their personal devices such as smart phones and laptops to the workspace. It further encourages businesses to allow employees access to corporate information and run various business applications. Many people believe that this is a rather unconventional model if it allows you to run various business applications and have remote access to confidential access points.

Traditionally, the enterprise is responsible for providing the employees with a mobile device for work. As a result, people would carry two devices, one for their personal use, while the other would be for work purposes. These days, the growing trend in the workspace is one in which employees can access business servers using personal devices.

 BYOD Challenges

Despite smart phones and tablets being incredible tools for productivity, BYOD methods are still not short of any challenges for a company. There are great expectations that come with using personal devices for work. For instance, these devices need to have good user experience for personal use. However, there is a limit to the amount of freedom a company can give to an employee on their devices.

Companies therefore need to make sure that they provide remote access to their employees without having a negative impact on the customer’s device. This is why there is a need to implement BYOD policy and management. Another reason why BYOD policy is important has to do with secure access and malware threats.

BYOD Policy

There are a wide variety of BYOD policies, each ranging from highly restrictive to least restrictive. When making these policies, you must try to deploy the right balance between blocking access and allowing freedom. An incredible BYOD policy is one that can encourage employees to get more productive by using their devices.

At the same time, a BYOD policy should work towards not compromising your business security. You also have to make sure that there is a certain level of standard that your policy enforces. Below, the article will move forth and discuss some of approaches to BYOD policy.

Use an MDM

This is one of the best and most common methods of deploying a BYOD environment to your business. An MDM refers to Mobile Device Management. This approach can be very affective in terms of security, however, it requires an enterprise to lock down applications. This means that it allows applications to have more control of their employees’ device. Corporations can control installation of applications, dictate policies and more.

Even though this method is ideal for some companies, it is not without any shortcomings. Since companies get control of employee activity, it can create issues with user experience. Moreover, it also rids people from having freedom of being creative and being productive using their devices.

However, businesses can counter this problem by easing control. In other words, MDM solutions can still work without the need to control and lock down employees device. The new approach to deploy BYOD involves a solution that pertains to application development.

Application Development

In this solution, businesses can deploy control that is mitigated and limited to only business applications. This allows employees all the freedom to install applications of their choice. Corporate policies do not interfere with employee activity in this instance. The only time business intervention comes into play is when a workers needs to access business information and data centers.

There are also some key services your business should be able to provide to enable an effective BYOD policy within your organization. These policies include providing access and authentication to applications which you will deploy. Furthermore, you should also be able to secure the data that is present on the application.

To secure the transit and rested data you will need to integrate cyber security measures that monitor, alert, and prevent malware threats from penetrating through the access points. To do this, a business needs to adhere to DLP policies, or in other words, Data Leakage Protection. These policies are integral when trying to maintain a safe and secure BYOD environment.

Access Control and Authentication

Every enterprise server and application needs to correspond with a back-end service. The traditional approach in this instance is to make use of a VPN. However, a VPN can present a set of challenges that have to do with exposing enterprise server to foreign devices.

Corporate data that are situated on cloud services can expose your data to vulnerable devices, which can be threatening to any company. Therefore, the BYOD infrastructure that you will implement should have the capability of providing smooth access to data with authentication.

Authentication allows user to tie in with their identity, framework as the server recognizes the device before it lets you in. There will always be multiple applications that employees would want to use when trying to be productive. In this instance, they should not have to authenticate their identity every time they use those applications.

Is BYOD for Your Company?

BYOD is becoming the norm in businesses that use online applications to run applications. The move to BYOD brings plenty of benefits to employers and employees. The first and most evident benefit involves cost savings. By deploying a BYOD strategy, companies do not have the need to purchase mobile phones, devices or pay for monthly subscriptions.

Not to mention, employees are also more comfortable when they are using their personal devices, and thus, this comfort reflects in their productivity. Additionally, allowing your workers to use their own devices allows for remote work access and a hybrid working model. This model helps incorporate more flexibility to businesses.

Seek Cloud Solutions for BYOD Deployment

Integrating cloud solutions to your business means that you can leverage form a widespread secure access control. This helps businesses to manage mobile devices in ways that meet compliance standards, while allowing necessary freedom to employees. Prescient Solutions are Cloud Service Providers that can help you get started with your BYOD policy. Fill in their online form to get more information.