By Ben Puzzuoli, Director Sales & Marketing at DataDepositBox
May 18, 2015

DataDepositBox Online Data Backup Expert Tips: BYOD – Connecting Personal Devices

Whether it’s social media, SaaS, Social CRM, Cloud Computing, Gamification, Virtualization, or Mobile, each year we are made aware of the latest technology issues facing small business owners – and now it’s BYOD (Bring your own device). With the explosion of mini-laptops, Smartphone’s, and tablets, BYOD has become one of the hottest security issues. Companies need to get on board and stop wasting valuable time trying to avoid it, as it is vital.

Embrace, Implement and Refine
Clients may expect BYOD connectivity when visiting your business. Absence of this innovative techno-communications could stain your company as old-fashioned and archaic. The quicker your company embraces, and implements a BYOD strategy, the quicker IT can begin refining the system.

Vulnerability Management
The biggest challenge of integrating BYOD is “vulnerability management”. Proper security measures need to be in place to ensure that no device can be used as a backdoor to the company’s critical information. That introduces the mobile disaster-recovery issue; now the company will need to ensure that any critical data stored on the employees’ device is not lost.

By providing a BYOD plan, your transition will be easier and your employees will understand the logistics. Here are some questions to ask yourself that may help you determine if you need a BYOD policy:

  • Do I really need one?
  • Has anyone asked for that type of connectivity?
  • Am I exposed to security issues when they send and retrieve email from our server?
  • Are all evil things that could happen via email controlled by the security software running at the server level?
  • Do we have a hosted mail server and each employee has their own login to their email account?
  • But what tablets and laptops? Do most of our clients connect into our servers via Remote Desktop? How about Citrix?
  • Is the connection made through our Virtual Private Network so it is secure?
  • From a security standpoint, is BYOD policy really needed to be established?

Remember that there are some other logistical concerns. For example, synching of company data to a device is a good reason to have a BYOD policy. It is right to be concerned about company data that is out and about with an employee, particularly if that employee leaves the company. Every business, big or small, should be worried about that.

Supporting multiple devices costs more money. What must be considered here is what is best for the employees.

  • What will help the employees do their jobs better?
  • What will make the employees most productive?

BYOD affords numerous conveniences, but not without its risks. Many companies continue to hold out on to the idea of not integrating employee devices into their IT environment for those reasons. But, BYOD seems that it is here to stay. Companies feeling fastidious about networking every iPhone, Android and Blackberry will soon be forced to adapt if they have not done so already.

If BYOD is properly and securely implemented, it can be beneficial for a company and its employees. Companies need to be proactive and start implementing a strong BYOD policy and add employees to the network.

About the Author: Ben Puzzuoli is Director of Sales & Marketing at DataDepositBox, a Toronto based cloud data backup service provider, which is listed at both the Toronto and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges. DataDepositBox technologies and solutions are currently used daily by over 200,000 customers, 1,000 resellers, 25 MSPs and private label partners for online backup and recovery, archiving, disaster readiness, secure file sharing and remote access. Visit DDB website here: www.DataDepositBox.com

 

 

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