Mobile devices have changed the lifestyles of people all over the world, and its effect in the workplace is growing steadily as well. Modern day gadgets have enough flexibility and features to all employees to keep their laptops in office and use their smartphones or tablets at home.
The term BYOD or Bring-Your-Own-Device refers to the company policy of allowing employees to bring their personally owned mobile devices such as laptops, tablets and mobile devices to the workplace, and to use those devices to access privileged company information. Despite concerns over security and handling of data, 2014 may be the year where the workplace officially goes mobile.
This infographic from Egnyte highlights the growing trend of BYOD, and the various challenges face by organizations
- 65% of employees named smartphones as their most reliable device, with the iPhone emerging 25 times more popular than the Samsung Galaxy S4.
- During 2012, the Nook was used for BYOD 12.6 times more than Kindle Fire, while the iPad was used 23 times more than Samsung Tablets.
- More than 2/3 thirds of American small businesses already use BYOD, and a third of all organizations plan to stop providing devices to workers by 2013.
- Several companies have reported benefits from BYOD, such as employees gaining 9 hours of additional productivity while out of office. These measures, combined with cost cuts, have resulted in US$ 2 Billion additional savings.
- VPN’s were the most common method for employees to access files, with 76% choosing VPNs, Â while only 12% used cloud sharing services.
- Concerns about BYOD still exist. At least 90% of IT professionals expressed strong concerns about sharing content via mobile, while 21% of companies still don’t have any official mobile access policy.
- More than 3/5 of organizations worry about data control loss, leaks and security issues for online file sharing.
Despite being present in 2/3 of all U.S companies, many enterprises still have no clear policy in place. Several other companies have yet to educate their employees on BYOD methods. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)Â devices have a clear lead in the enterprise market, but Android and Windows devices are steadily gaining popularity as well. Gartner predicts that by 2017, BYOD will evolve from a trend to a requirement.
