A fifth of BYOD projects will fail by 2016, predicts Gartner

www.freedigitalphotos.net

The analyst firm claims that many employees are now becoming more aware that MDM solutions often allow their employers to access personal information and applications, rendering the concept less attractive to staff. Gartner is therefore advising organisations to find solutions that keep personal and corporate data separate.

Jonathan Foulkes, VP of mobile product management at Kaseya, has made the following comments: "While BYOD seemed an attractive prospect for both businesses and users at first, it's fast becoming clear that there are a number of issues that need to be ironed out. Gartner's prediction clearly demonstrates that too many organisations are not only dictating use-policies that are too heavy-handed, but also failing to reassure employees that their personal information will not be accessed by the company.

"For BYOD to be a success, users must feel they have retained their personal privacy and can use their device as they wish. At the same time, no compromise can be made to the security and management of business information".

"While this is often a difficult balance for IT teams to strike, the scales can be balanced through a containerised approach. With containerisation, all corporate data is stored within downloadable applications in secure containers on the device, which are kept separate from the employee's personal information. This approach not only ensures that all business information is kept in a safe place, but also gives IT teams greater control over that information without impacting employee use of their own devices.

"In the long-term, and as mobile devices become even more advanced, it is going to become even more difficult for organisations to dictate how employees can and can't use their own devices. Yet, with increasing security risks, organisations will want more control than ever. Given this catch-22, containerisation is the only way to satisfy the needs of everyone and ensure that BYOD is the business enabler it should be, rather than the cause of contention it's currently on course to become."