BYOD: Are you ready?

Bring Your Own Device is the next hurdle IT departments are facing in the very near future (some are facing this now). Do we, or don’t we, allow our technology consumers to bring in their own devices to use on the network, and if we do, how do we support them?

• Do we have the infrastructure to support them, such as managed wireless and sufficient bandwidth?
• Do we have security in place to both allow them on with a minimum of interaction from us, while still allowing them to only access just what they need?
• Do we have staff in place that can handle the barrage of new devices and the connection problems they are bound to have?
• Do our acceptable use policies cover consumer provided devices?

These are just some of the many questions that are coming up. Most systems were designed with future expansion in mind, however, most were not designed for sometimes triple the current number of devices. Everyone has a Smart Phone and wants to bring in a Tablet or Laptop and connect all of these devices to the network. In small businesses, this may not be as much of an issue, but in schools and large businesses, this can be a huge problem with a couple thousand users.

This discussion has come up more than once in our meetings at Questeq, and what we have determined is that there is no clear cut answer, as every situation is different. BYOD is knocking at your door, so I ask again, Are YOU ready?

– John Sanderbeck, Questeq Infrastructure Engineer