The Cloud: A Cost-Effective Way to Face BYOD’s Security Challenges

A trend quickly embraced by end users, BYOD makes companies and  IT managers shiver when thinking about security and compliance implications. If the number of employees that bring their own device to work is continuously increasing, so does the number of vulnerable entry points into sensitive corporate data. Organizations find themselves in the situation of managing even more computing devices and having to protect themselves against security threats and costs to support these devices.

At this point, the move IT managers should consider is to take advantage of the benefits that cloud technology has to offer. Not only does it provide a cost-efficient manner of dealing with security concerns, but locally storing data has it’s own problems as more data is stored locally, the support for the devices increases.

The Ideal Move for SMB’s

Adopting cloud-based services for mobile device management is the best way to deal with the lack of budget and IT small businesses usually deal with. When BYOD and cloud computing are deployed correctly, there are considerable savings and benefits.

Implementing a BYOD program means the company is no longer in need to spend large amounts of money purchasing employee devices. From my personal experience as a CTO for several companies, people tend to take better care of their own equipment, which significantly reduces, if not eliminates, maintenance, support and repairs.  Plus, MDM in the cloud simplifies the management of the devices, so businesses can run more efficiently with fewer IT resources.

Beyond Security, Desktop Virtualization Is Possible

There are many voices out there that forecast the possibility of entire workspaces housed in the cloud. In this context, it’s easy to imagine that an employee’s device would become simply a terminal for connecting to the cloud-based desktop by simply logging in to connect to the work desktop.  Hmm, are we going back to the future, just like the DEC, VAX and Wang days? 😉

Adopting cloud-based services will lead to the extinction of locally stored data, so the security risk would be reduced significantly. When employees leave the company, you will feel confident they are not taking company confidential documents, they would only be taking their personal devices with them.

How do you feel about adopting new technologies for your businesses? Are there challenges you’ve met and didn’t find the solution to overcome them? Feel free to share them with us!

Photo source:  mikecogh