How To Cure That Christmas BYOD Hangover

With Christmas right around the corner many people are hitting the shops looking for the latest gadgets. Imagine opening up the latest iPhone, smart watch or tablet on Christmas Day. Many people go into the New Year set with the latest devices but when these are brought into the workplace it can pose a huge challenge, causing the latest hangover for CIO’s in January. However, if organisations are prepared, these gifts can be used as an advantage to create a more collaborative and productive workforce.

 Making presents productive

 In January we expect many employees will return to work with new smart devices. Today our working lives are almost 24/7 and employees will naturally start using these portable devices to store, share and access company data. If organisations don’t have a strategy in place to facilitate secure mobile working then highly critical data could be at risk. Not only is data leakage a major concern but businesses will have no visibility into how the data is being used or where it is stored. These devices and the data stored on them can also be lost or stolen and with data becoming more and more valuable this is not something organisations can afford to leave to chance.  There is also the additional risk that these home devices lack advanced security measures, providing a gateway for hackers and leaving the companies own servers at risk. So, how can organisations take advantage of mobile devices whilst protecting critical data?

CIO’s are often warned of the dangers of allowing Christmas gadgets into the workplace, but these can also be a business assets. Gartner recently predicted that by 2017 over half of employers will require users to supply their own device for work purposes.[1] However it is critical that BYOD is underpinned by a corporate strategy. Smart IT leaders will prepare before and after the holiday season to ensure they can mitigate these risks, for example, by offering a secure file sync and share (FSS) platform.

Any FFS platform should be intertwined with the company’s storage environment otherwise businesses risk damaged or duplicated files. Many storage and FSS solutions exist for individual requirements, which businesses will typically cobble together in a costly and inefficient way to form their IT environment. IT leaders should look at unifying their platform into one solution, which provides secure and easy file sync and share functionalities. With this in place businesses can take advantage of employees using their own devices for work purposes.

Organisations need a unified solution, which delivers high performance and multi-site collaboration at LAN speed to support business continuity and disaster recovery, as well as mobile access. With this in place IT leaders can enjoy the collaboration and productivity provided by remote devices whilst mitigating any security concerns. If businesses are prepared, the latest gadgets don’t have to mean a nightmare after Christmas. It can be the gift that keeps on giving.