Personal technology has been growing by leaps and bounds recently. The Pew Research Center stated that around 68 percent of Americans now own a smartphone, a device that could be considered a computer you can fit in your pocket.
Therefore, it has begun to make a lot of sense for employers to allow their staff to utilize personally owned gadgets for work. This trend has been named “bring your own device,” and it’s gaining a lot of popularity all over the world. In fact, many companies have begun to utilize BYOD in tandem with a cloud deployment.
“Your employees are already using their own devices.”
BYOD is here, whether you like it or not
To begin, it’s important to note that your employees are already using their own devices to complete their daily duties. A study from Gartner found that around 37 percent of those surveyed stated they were using personal gadgets for work-related purposes without informing their superiors.
This is a huge problem, because it means that these companies have a gaping security flaw waiting to be exploited by hackers, as people very often don’t secure their own devices properly. Implementing a BYOD program that leverages the many security benefits of the cloud can help alleviate this issue.
The cloud fosters mobility
Outside of simply fixing an existing problem, combining BYOD and the cloud allows employees to truly take advantage of the wonders of modern mobility. Many organizations – especially those operating within the legal sector – have to complete their work outside of the office.
Employees very often have to collaborate outside the office.This is where the cloud comes in. Before this technology, the only way for employees to complete tasks while away from the office was to lug all the resources they needed around with them. This was either cumbersome or simply impossible, and put a real damper on working to meet the demands of clients.
The other side of this is that BYOD allows for more flexibility in the movement of expensive equipment. While the cloud allows employees to access information wherever they are, they still need some kind of connected device. An organization could allow workers to sign out company-owned machines, but this always risks the chance of something expensive getting damaged.
BYOD, on the other hand, poses no such financial risk to the business. Anything that breaks or is lost needn’t be replaced by the company. It’s a major improvement that more organizations should be taking advantage of.