BYOD – Finally, a Real Deployment | AGL (Above Ground Level)

BYOD – Finally, a Real Deployment

December 11, 2014

By Ernest Worthman

December 11, 2014 — BYOD (bring your own device) had a lot of promise a couple of years ago. Even at the beginning of 2014 there seemed to be solid progress within this platform but there was little real movement after all. However, just about the time one loses interest, a knight in shining armor arises. Finally, we see solid evidence that BYOD may have legs after all.

Hope comes in the form of the Netherlands’ main international airport Schiphol, which just migrated its 2,000-plus workforce to a BYOD program using Good Technology’s enterprise mobility platform. The airport has gone to a platform that supports both tablets and smartphones.

Employees now use their devices to access email, calendar, contacts, as well as being able to share documents via the airport’s file and SharePoint servers. Employees now simply carry a tablet, instead of a stack of paper and a tablet. This has reduced printing by 80 percent, according to Good Technology.

BYOD is one of those technologies that looks good on paper. The idea that any device can be interfaced to any network is coming – just not yet. Plus, there are huge security issues with employee-owned devices accessing confidential corporate data. Also, there are few BYOD applications currently available.

Deployments are few, and most IT departments are not in favor of it. However, there are significant potential cost savings involved with BYOD so it will eventually be adopted, once the bugs and security issues are resolved.

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Ernest Worthman is the editor of AGL Small Cell Magazine.