Does Your Company Let You 'Bring Your Own Device'?

You may have noticed a few buzzwords swirling around the last few months and one in particular that doesn't seem to want to fade away. "BYOD" or bring your own device, has most likely infiltrated your social media streams, tech blogs and possibly your real life conversations. What is it? We've covered it before but for a brief recap, it's basically when you bring your personal laptop, tablet or smartphone into work and use it for your job. There are a ton of benefits for both the user and the company. The company saves money and you  get to work on a device you already know and love. 

However, there are a few roadblocks to completely pain-free BYOD policy adoption. Security and application compatibility are two of the biggest headaches faced by IT departments. Personal devices access and download private company data and some enterprise software is Windows only or significantly different on the Mac. That's where Parallels Desktop for Mac Enterprise Edition comes in. The Enterprise Edition of Parallels Desktop not only lets you run the Windows applications you need on the Mac you love, it also provides IT departments the tools they need to manage and deploy large numbers of Apple devices. 

Are you curious how your office stacks up in the BYOD landscape or want to find out more about the trend? Take our quick survey to see where your workplace rates on our BYOD barometer! 

 

IT managers, get control of the Mac's in your office with Parallels Desktop Mac Enterprise Edition and keep your users happy and make your life easier! We'd love to talk to you about using Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition as the solution to your BYOD policy. Contact us for more information. 

Comments

[altheabrasselton]

Short answer is yes, we are allowed to use BYOD, but our policy states that we have to use the supplied Tigertext app for all text messaging in order for the hospital to keep patient data secure. Mobile device usage is like ants marching. You can't stop it. So true. This is how I explain the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) issue to upper management.

This is a big issue in the healthcare industry, where HIPAA and patient data confidentiality can lead to major law suits for loss or unsecured use of data by mobile devices.

The problem is that the data is on the BYOD device, and if it is lost or stolen, then the data can be accessed.

The problem is that the large centralized BYOD systems are expensive and very restricting for the users.

Like ants, we can't stop doctors and nurse from emailing or texting confidential patient data from their smart phones and iPads.

Instead, we try to provide them with tools to help them keep the data secure.

Example, for text messaging we got all the doctors to use Tigertext, which is HIPAA compliant since it is a secure closed network that works on most smartphones, and deletes the text message after a period of time. At $10 a user it is very cost effective and saving the hospital from millions in law suits.

I think BYOD policy and technologies are going to be the major focus of IT departments for sometime to come, and cost effective and easy to use and implement solutions that work on personal devices will be key to solving the security issues related to BYOD.

www.byod.us
www.tigertext.com