FEATURE: BYOD
• Network security: IT should take the
appropriate steps to ensure employee
owned devices aren’t the source of
unwanted activity on the network,
especially with remote connectivity via
VPN, authentication and access control
taking on an important role
• Mobile device security: IT needs
to establish policies on what type of
information can be allowed on an
employee’s device. This will ensure that
information on devices that leave the
office doesn’t fall into the wrong hands
• Application policies: By allowing
employees to bring their own devices, IT
is also suggesting employees are free to
use whichever applications they choose.
Some content and applications may
not be appropriate for the workplace.
Application control could be important to
ensure adherence to corporate policies
The benefits of BYOD are encouraging
organisations to adopt it. BYOD programmes
generally shift costs to the user. With the
worker paying for most, or all of the costs
of the hardware, voice or data services, and
other associated expenses, companies save
a lot of money.
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Of course, they’d rather use the devices they
love rather than being stuck with laptops and
mobile devices that are selected and issued
by the IT department.
There are two corollary advantages that
come with BYOD as well. BYOD devices tend
to be more cutting edge, so the organisation
gets the benefit of the latest features and
capabilities. Users also upgrade to the latest
hardware more frequently than the painfully
slow refresh cycles at most organisations.
Trends like BYOD are affecting the types
of products organisations are looking for.
Firstly, many companies are investing in
upgrading their networks to deliver faster,
more pervasive network connectivity.
Gamal Emara, Country Manager, UAE,
at Aruba
Forcing users to utilise company issued
devices can also have a negative impact
on productivity and employee satisfaction.
Users have the laptops and smartphones
they have for a reason; those are the devices
they prefer, and they like them so much they
invested their hard-earned money in them.
The Gigabit Wireless standard (802.11ac)
is allowing companies to move towards
the all wireless office, supporting a larger
number of mobile devices without sacrificing
performance for communications and
corporate applications.
Secondly, organisations are looking for
integrated security products that can
handle authentication, policy controls and
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