Partner Article

Balancing the benefits of BYOD

The rise of the tablet computer and the associated Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement present a dilemma for corporate IT managers. On the one hand, allowing employees to access corporate data from personal devices and cloud-based applications increases efficiency and productivity. On the other, IT loses control over corporate information with potentially serious consequences.

As demonstrated both by the popularity of the iPad and the recent launch of the Surface and other Windows 8 tablets, however, the BYOD bonanza is here to stay. Indeed, the number of employees using services outside of IT control is expected to rise exponentially. In less than three years, Gartner predicts, one-third of IT expenditures will occur outside of the corporate budget.

The challenge is to embrace the productivity gains related to the consumerisation of IT while also minimising the risks of endpoint-related data loss or breach.

Double trouble

Those risks are coming not only from the proliferation of non-secured personal devices that can be easily lost or stolen, but also from the use of free file sharing tools like Dropbox and YouSendIt. Recent research suggests that one out of five business users use consumer file-sync-and-share systems with work documents to facilitate peer-to-peer collaboration as well as to access their own files from their personal devices. That leaves IT teams with no visibility into who is sharing what with whom.

In the absence of enterprise-grade security controls over these two areas of vulnerability, IT departments are playing with fire. Data backup, encryption, secure file sharing and the ability to perform remote wipes in the event a device is lost or stolen are essential to plug the security holes, yet rarely used for mobile devices and traditionally requiring multiple point solutions that are difficult both to deploy and manage.

Productivity & innovation

Historically, of course, technology changes within organisations were driven by IT departments. Today, workers are increasingly taking the lead as they incorporate the technology they use in their personal lives into the business environment. Companies stand to gain from several perspectives.

First, with their small form factors and easy connectivity, BYOD devices enable employees to be more productive both inside and outside the workplace. In a new study by prominent technology distributor CDW, respondents reported gaining an average of 1.1 hours in daily productivity by using their tablet computers for work purposes, and a remarkable 84% said that tablets made them better multi-taskers. From checking email on a commute to using a tablet in tight quarters inappropriate for a laptop, users in today’s increasingly mobile-enabled workforce simply have easier information access.

Second, by using free file sharing platforms to facilitate information sharing, employees foster collaboration that can literally transform a business. According to a study by the Future Foundation, there is an 81% correlation between collaboration and innovation, with employees who are given collaboration opportunities more than twice as likely to contribute new ideas to their company. Significantly, remote collaboration between colleagues who know each other is as effective as face-to-face meetings, suggesting that both mobile devices and file sharing technology are advancing the collaboration process.

Data at risk

Still, those benefits must be balanced against the dangers of compromising confidential business information, personal data, and/or compliance with governance and regulatory requirements on BYOD devices as well as laptops and desktops. There is ample reason for concern. For example:

• Nearly half of the companies that permit BYOD have experienced a data or security breach, according to a Trend Micro survey of U.S., UK and German enterprises published last summer.
• An unencrypted laptop with information on 10,000 employees and contractors of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was stolen this past October, marking the third laptop-related NASA data breach in 18 months.
• Dropbox has suffered multiple security breaches, including last August’s theft of a file containing customer email addresses from an employee’s account, calling the safety of customer files into question.

IT departments recognize the need to let users do their jobs on the devices of their choice, but they need a strategy for keeping corporate data under lock and key that meets two objectives. First, they need to minimise IT deployment and management overhead. Second, they need to equip employees with an easy, non-intrusive solution that also provides access to all of their data from any mobile device for true mobile work enablement.

Covering all bases

One answer is to integrate backup, file sharing and data loss prevention strategies into a single, unified solution that also consolidates endpoint policy management across all devices and users. This approach not only strengthens protection by providing multi-layered security, but also minimizes management costs by eliminating point solutions.

Backup ensures that documents and other critical corporate data can be quickly recovered in the event a device is lost or stolen, minimizing productivity losses for both end users and IT personnel. Having a repository of backed-up files also makes it possible for mobile users to access data remotely from whatever device they are using at the moment, eliminating the need to move files from one device to another or into a consumer file sharing service to ensure anytime/anywhere availability.

Offering secure, IT-controlled file sharing from the same platform – and from the same end user interface – gives users an easily accessible alternative to services like Dropbox and YouSendIt for collaboration with both internal and external users. Folders and files can be automatically synchronized between devices and users within the organisation to ensure access to the latest content. In addition, IT administrators can enforce file sharing policies and track all document exchanges for compliance and governance purposes – all without deploying and managing a separate solution with its own administrative console.

Bringing data loss prevention features under the same umbrella adds critical incremental protections against device loss or theft, again without adding IT overhead. Capabilities may include data encryption, remote deactivation for lost or stolen devices, and the ability to selectively delete data on user-owned devices to prevent departing employees from taking corporate data with them.

A recent Ponemon Institute study calculated that this kind of unified endpoint data management strategy can save enterprises more than £5100 per user annually in IT administration and end user overhead. That represents a yearly savings of more than £16 million for a company with about 3,000 users.

Leading analysts have also endorsed this one-stop strategy, giving their highest ratings to endpoint protection platforms that combine secure backup, data access, collaboration and data loss prevention.

With the burgeoning business use of tablets and smartphones as well as the ubiquitous use of consumer file sharing services, organisations cannot afford to ignore the associated security issues. No one wants to stifle employee productivity by forbidding the use of these devices, but no one wants to issue an open invitation to data thieves either. Regardless of the specific tools you choose, deploying mobile backup, file sharing and data loss prevention components will minimise points of vulnerability and thwart data breaches that can irreparably harm a business.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jaspreet Singh .