Why the “White List” Approach to BYO Devices is the Way to Go

In a previous post I talked about the benefits and drawbacks of the BYO device trend. As I mentioned, one of the major downsides of allowing devices into your organization is the security risk. So when IT wants to exert more control and management over these devices, taking a “white list” approach is often the answer.

White Listing Raises the Stakes
Limiting your employees to a white listed (IT approved) set of BYO devices raises the stakes for both IT and the employee.

• IT expects to be more in control. If you permit corporate information to be stored on the devices, you’ll need to be able to protect it – including having the ability to erase it or make it inaccessible if the device is lost or stolen.



• Costs will unfortunately go up, because IT needs to have the software to manage and protect the BYO devices.



• For their part, when employees are restricted to a particular set of devices, they expect to get more from IT in exchange.

What Devices Should You Include?
Your white list should include those devices whose operating systems have achieved large-scale market adoption. Why? Because finding software to manage non “mainstream” devices is just too difficult. The obvious devices for IT to work with are:

• Windows PCs



• Macintoshes



• iPhones



• iPads



• Droid devices



• Blackberry supported devices

A Number of Software Tools are Available
If you’ve limited your white list to the devices listed above, a number of software tools are available to help with device management and security. Blackberry has very good tools. Good Technology, Mobile Iron and Credant are all worth a close look as well.

Conclusion
Taking a white list approach to BYO devices gives you the best of both worlds. Employees get to use the devices they love, while IT can manage the security risks and provide some level of support. Do you agree with my position? Leave a comment!

Should IT Support BYO Devices?

Back in the day it was expected that organizations would provide, manage and support laptop or desktop computers for their employees’ use. In today’s world, however, employees are increasingly demanding the ability to bring in and use the tablets and smart phones that have become an integral part of their lives.

The Upside of the BYO Device Trend
If you allow employees to bring non-IT approved devices to work, users get a device that they like and tend to keep with them, thereby making them more accessible (and possibly inspiring them to work more outside of the office). The use of BYO devices also tends to shorten training times, since users are already using these devices in other aspects of their lives.

The Downside of the BYO Device Trend
On the other hand, it’s clear that the use of BYO devices will increase your security risks and support costs, and can also raise privacy issues. After all, in the “good old days,” laptops’ and desktops’ internal storage and memory were controlled, standardized and managed by IT. If an employee left the company, the device – and all of the sensitive information that was stored on it – remained within the company.
















It’s Time for a Conceptual Shift
In the original model of endpoint support, the boundary of IT support and security extended into the device. In the new BYO device world, a conceptual shift needs to take place regarding that boundary. I believe that one of the clearest ways to do this is to redefine the boundary as being outside of the device. In this model BYO devices are only permitted to access corporate information through a narrowly defined interface. No company information is permitted to be stored on the device.

Regardless of how you choose to handle the situation, though, this is a big issue and having a well thought out plan for managing BYO devices in your work place is a must. What do you think? I welcome your comments.

The Next Generation of Coyote Creek Blogs

Whatever your view on the hype around social media marketing, there’s no denying that the self-publishing of information enabled by blogs and other forms of social media has, for better or worse, revolutionized that way that we share and consume information. For example, according to a study by The Society for New Communications Research, blogs are now the fourth most commonly used source of online information for executive decision making.

At Coyote Creek we’ve had a blog for a while that has mostly been driven by industry commentary from our CEO, Mike Faster. We now plan to expand the scope of our social media marketing and in particular our blog. While we’ll still feature Mike’s commentary, we will also showcase our technical leads discussing hot product issues and sharing best practice tips and tricks.

Today, Tuesday May 17th marks the launch of our new generation of blogs. We hope you’ll take a look and share some of your own experiences and feedback. We’ll also be beefing up our LinkedIn and Twitter presence so we can share our knowledge with an even wider audience than our blogs. So watch out – Coyote Creek’s experts are coming to a browser near you!