Here is a very quick post on BYOD purely from my perspective, it’s meant to make you think – oh yea! He has a point.
BYOD is defined on Wikipedia (I know) as “Bring your own device (BYOD) (also called bring your own technology (BYOT), bring your own phone (BYOP), and bring your own PC (BYOPC) means the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, hair straightners and smart phones) to their workplace, and use those devices to access privileged company information and applications.”
As an IT Technician I’ve always been concerned about BYOD from a support point of view. How far do you support someone’s private equipment? How far are we liable? Are we expected to fix an employees smashed iPad screen? Remove viruses from an employees laptop because they installed a toolbar? Reinstall Windows 7 on their home PC?
All because they dial in from home? Or bring their personal equipment to work?
Not to mention, if I’m trying to fix a problem on your PC and I personally end up breaking the Windows installation meaning you need a full re-installation of the OS – I’m going to get it in the neck because you’ve lost your iTunes library. If you had a simple work PC I’d swap it out, you’d have a new machine in 20 minutes. You’re looking at 3 hours+ for a reinstall before you even get to client software re-installation.
BYOD is a dangerous area for support and needs strict definition on what will and will not be supported.
Today showed me how far we go fixing BYODs. I had to fix a pair of GHD Hair Straightners. That’s true. Yes it was a favour, yes it took me 5 minutes, and yes it was a BYOD.