5 Stats on BYOD & What They Mean for Your Company
By John DeWolfThe trend of BYOD (bring your own device) is becoming much more prevalent in the corporate arena. The following stats provide the proof. Check them out:
1. 62% of organizations will allow BYOD by the end of 2013.
According to Symantec’s survey of 236 businesses:
2. 59% of employers encourage BYOD, but they don’t allow the same productivity apps used on corporate-owned devices.
3. 42% of employees use a personally owned mobile device for business, regardless of company policy.
4. 83% of organizations allow personally owned devices (such as mobile phones) for business use.
5. While 80% of organizations enforce their policies, only 68% use technology to do so and 11% rely on HR, the honor system, or information supplied by other employees.
It’s clear from the numbers that BYOD is on the rise. But these statistics make me wonder – what does this mean for all the data we store in the cloud? The short answer: it stresses the importance of securing data and understanding security and compliance changes that take place.
The Guardian noted that personal devices used in business are more shared and therefore more prone to data loss, theft, or damage. The cloud data we access through such devices may be increasingly susceptible to the risks we normally worry about: third party access, corruption, accidental deletion, etc. Symantec found that 60% of organizations had incidents of lost or stolen devices, so the impact on security is evident. As Rip Gerber asked, how do you keep your in-the-cloud data secure in a BYOD world?
Many companies are creating policies around BYOD that outline what employees can and cannot use and how to securely sync business data and access internal servers on personal devices. Other companies don’t agree with BYOD policies, but they mitigate the risk of data loss with a comprehensive backup solution so that no matter what, they can still access their information. What are your thoughts around the changing technology scene? Should companies allow for BYOD? If so, how does your firm ensure security and compliance?
