Smart investing leads to BYOD success

There is a very good chance that at the coffee shop around the corner there is a corporate employee doing business right now. Smartphones, tablets, laptops and wireless networks make it increasingly easy to handle work functions away from the office. As such, bring your own device (BYOD) strategies are growing in popularity, but without proper implementation, they can become much more expensive then they are worth.

A new slideshow put together by Chris Preimesberger for eWeek, looks at the pitfalls of a BYOD policy and offers advice on how to avoid them.

"Ignorance isn't bliss with BYOD," wrote Preimesberger. "If you fail to put a strategy in place for managing mobile devices, employees will still use devices on the network. But by investing in tools to gain proper visibility, governance and control, IT can work with what employees want while improving network performance. Bottom line: BYOD can be a win-win."

At the top of the list for company are the security concerns. Data loss, breaches and missing devices all come up, but too often preventative measures are not put into place and that can be costly. In 2011 the average cost of a data breach was $5.5 million.

IT departments will also face new challenges. A BYOD policy means the help desk has a bundle of new devices to manage and making sure they have the resources to manage new technology is key. Also a re-imagined role of IT departments needs to take place as technology professionals now have larger operational responsibilities.

The final issue eWeek points out is the effect a BYOD policy has on a company's broadband network. If not taken into account, the added devices to the internal wireless network can cause it to grind to a halt. There is little that can be done in that instant, short of upgrading or re-cabling the complete system.

Businesses in Ohio that are interested in deploying a BYOD system would be wise to partner with an IT consulting firm.

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