BYOD and the Consumerization of IT

When employees bring their own devices to work (BYOD) and use them to share files and data inside and outside the office, it is difficult for IT to maintain visibility and control. This has created a new trend, called the consumerization of IT, which includes BYOD, the use of third-party cloud services and applications such as cloud storage and social media.

This trend is being driven by simple, accessible, and pervasive technology that frees people to work anytime, anywhere. According to Gartner, the “consumerization of IT” will be the most significant trend affecting IT for the next ten years. And, it includes mobile device management, application management, data protection, IT security—and more.

Enterprises can take advantage of BYOD and consumerization with a strategy to reduce security risks, financial exposure, and management chaos. This strategy helps IT balance the risk against the benefits of consumerization with a solutions infrastructure and BYOD program to help IT:

• Regain visibility and control by managing company data and limiting liabilities on personal devices
• Share corporate data confidently with secure access, backup, and file sharing
• Protect data wherever it goes with context-aware security

BYOD Mobile Device Management

Gain visibility and control of mobile devices and data in motion

As popular new consumer technology floods the enterprise, the consumerization of IT offers the potential to increase employee productivity and reduce overall IT costs. However, it also challenges IT with new security risks, financial exposure, and operational complexity. How does IT maintain visibility and control of the ever evolving array of mobile devices and the consumer apps that proliferate with BYOD?

To minimize the operational costs of BYOD, enterprises need solutions with broad platform support that consolidate management and integrate with their existing endpoint security infrastructure. Mobile device management, mobile application management, mobile security, and data security help ensure visibility and control of BYOD and IT connectivity.

Most mobile malware relies heavily on user interaction to initiate—which means a bad app can spread to millions of smartphone users instantly when shared in social networking sites. Educating mobile device users about prevention is the first step toward the consumerization of enterprise mobility—whether mobile devices are running Google Android, Apple iOS, Microsoft Windows Phone, or other operating system. The video, infographics, and primers below can help.

Control IT connectivity and BYOD

Enterprises require a unified security management solution that gives IT visibility and control over mobile devices and applications. Then they can realize the benefits of consumerization by protecting company- and employee-liable devices, across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

In addition, enterprises are experimenting with ways to reduce the operational costs of on-boarding and supporting BYOD. This requires mobile security that protects employee-liable devices as well as control over which devices can access corporate resources.

IT organizations are developing mobile device management policies for the provisioning and de-provisioning of employee-owned devices, which will help protect company and personal data, applications, and access. In addition, deploying password enforcement and encryption technology is as essential as a remote lock and wipe capability to protect data when employees lose their mobile devices.

To secure IT connectivity, Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ provides a cloud-client security infrastructure that stops threats before they reach your endpoints and mobile devices. It correlates global threat intelligence to prevent users from clicking on links to web sites that harbor malware, or from downloading bad apps, or opening links in phishing emails.

Increase agility and productivity

Enterprises require a unified security management solution that gives IT visibility and control over mobile devices and applications, enabling organizations to harness the benefits of consumerization. Data protection solutions include a full range of encryption, device control, and data loss prevention capabilities that make it easier to keep your private data and intellectual property safe—wherever it resides—from BYOD to endpoint to cloud.

For example, IT can increase productivity by enabling employees to work anytime, anywhere when files can be shared securely between users and their devices. With mobile device and application management, IT can quickly and easily make existing applications accessible to tablets, smartphones, and other BYOD platforms. IT can minimize the risk of data loss as employees access and share data across platforms. Data encryption with easy-to-use key management for virtual and cloud environments secures your corporate data as it moves in and out of the cloud.

Performance, productivity, and security are all improved with agentless security and IPS optimized for virtualized desktops, servers and applications. And similar benefits are seen with light and lean clients optimized for agent-based virtual desktop infrastructures.

Protect data in use and in motion

The cloud is one of the driving forces behind consumerization, with mobile devices accessing data from private clouds, social networking, or other cloud services and applications. Mobile device management (MDM), cloud-based security, device locator services, remote wipes for lost or stolen devices, and more—should all be part of a BYOD plan. With a BYOD program tailored to the needs of your organization, IT can safely exploit consumerization to increase employee productivity, attract and retain good employees, and gain business agility.

Context-aware security can protect data across physical, virtual and cloud environments. Mobile data can be protected via encryption and control over who can access and share data across network, servers, and clients, as well as removable storage. With integrated data loss prevention (DLP) across endpoint, messaging, and cloud, IT can gain BYOD productivity and reduce the cost of protecting data across heterogeneous platforms. Data privacy and compliance are also better served with the capabilities above.