‘Bring Your Own’ devices on the rise

According to a global study of 700 CIOs by Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS), 92 percent of organisations are aware that employees are using their own devices in the workplace and 94 percent intend to have a formal Bring Your Own (BYO) policy in place by 2013.

UK organisations are more likely than the other countries surveyed to trial BYO schemes, with 33 percent looking to do this within the next 12 months. In addition, UK CIOs are more forward-thinking about BYO as a way to improve employee satisfaction, attract talent and increase productivity and mobility, claims the report.

James Stevenson, area vice president UK, Ireland and South Africa at Citrix, comments: “The trend for employees wanting to use their own devices, especially tablets, is only going to grow over the next two years, so businesses that acknowledge now that this group is influencing future IT policy will be best positioned to reap the benefits.”

However, effectively securing the devices is still a major concern for organisations. A similar survey by Dell Kace has indicated firms are failing to protect sensitive data on personal devices. 87 percent of companies had employees that use personal laptops, smartphones and tablet computers at work. However, two-thirds of respondents reported security concerns, with more than half of the IT professionals questioned believed that their organisation lacked the tools needed to effectively manage personal devices.

Patrick Oliver Graf, director at IT security specialist, NCP engineering, is calling for firms to take action now to protect corporate and personal data: ““It’s evident that the consumerisation of IT just isn’t being recognised as a potential threat in the workplace and also, an important element of a businesses’ strategy. This is a very naïve approach and firms, including SMBs need to ensure that employees using their personal devices at work are connecting to networks securely; especially with more and more services being placed in the cloud.”

Adds Diane Hagglund, senior research analyst at Dimensional Research: “The majority of companies do not have a proper strategy in place to manage these devices. This opens them up to serious security risks, especially in the small and medium business market, so it is critical that companies put policies and standards into place to support these devices, and ensure the security of corporate and intellectual property.”

Graf believes the answer lies in implementing a VPN ‘no-click’ solution, which provides end-to-end security and device security when connecting to a network securely, without the need for one single click. “This means that firms can now really take control of the security of their data and networks, and not need to rely on their employees to authorise and manage the settings of a complex IT security tool,” he maintains.

Meanwhile, the Citrix study found nearly a quarter (23 percent) of UK business plan to address current security concerns with desktop virtualisation, and more than half (54 percent) have already implemented desktop virtualisation to centrally manage and secure desktops, applications and data in the datacentre.

Elsewhere, Jonathan Hallatt, VAR director at Netgear says employees’ own mobile devices can leave the business vulnerable to cyber threats and believes  security appliances such as UTM can help keep businesses’ IT secure. “Malware is also creeping into the business because of social media as employees inadvertently download malicious software through scams on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

“Threats brought onto the network from mobile devices or social media can cripple a business’s IT system and cost the company dearly. However, many businesses don’t have the resources or the time to deploy and manage multiple systems to stop these type of malicious threats.”