The BYOD (Bring your own device) trend is something that often creeps up on companies as employees take the initiative in using their own kit. WYOD (Wear Your Own Device) its hot on its heels, as wearables and smart watches continue to gain traction.
Mobile boom has brought with it new considerations for businesses in the form or BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). Despite still being a concept that many companies are yet to fully grasp, it is about to be overtaken by a new mobile trend. Soon we will all be dealing with WYOD (Wear Your Own Device).
Employees bringing their own smartphones into the workplace started the BYOD trend requiring enterprises to deal with the serious security implications that come from these devices. The decision for employees to wear their own device (WYOD) poses similar problems for IT departments, as employees use these devices, sometimes discretely, to access and share business content. Wearable devices simply add another level of access and security concern already seen with the BYOD trend. Wearable technology is the new “it” thing. From FitBit, to Google Glass, to Samsung Galaxy Gear, and now the Apple Watch.
BYOD world, the cost to business is not a lost device, since the device is owned by the employee, the true cost to business is loss of enterprise content, and this is often overlooked by BYOD policies. Watches, trackers and smart glasses all have their place in different environments across industries. While Google Glass is perhaps best suited to workers who need to work hands-free such as healthcare workers, smart watches have real potential to make a broad impact for remote workers.
Because of the rapid rise of the BYOD trend, the vast majority of companies found themselves reacting and putting out fires. Before BYOD, IT could control the use of technology. They’d issue the device and it would be locked down with the corporate IT firewall. But with more and more employees bringing in their own devices, IT’s efforts to keep a secure environment became almost impossible amongst the ever increasing number of devices they had little control over. There may be many applications for business productivity that will be discovered as employees wear their new devices to work.
So it’s not too early to start planning how to extend BYOD policy beyond smartphones to WYOD. Wearable tech is considered fun and hip, but from an enterprise standpoint it needs to be taken seriously. While WYOD offers opportunities for increased mobile productivity it needs to be worked into an organization’s overall mobile security strategy.
