A very articulate post. Thank you for adding your thoughts. I certainly agree that this causes a lot of issues that must be addressed and even though there are so-called “solutions” out there by vendors claiming to be able to enable a safe BYOD environment, the increased risk of data leakage alone, for me, makes it a no-go. I would only recommend BYOD in very niche circumstances, but as a general rule, my first reaction is “no”.

I don’t think it is a fad, unfortunately. I think this is something that will have to be integrated into business, but I think it could be done if the technology were designed around a more standardized and secure platform from the start. Having so many disparate operating systems and hardware platforms all integrated through convergence, countless social media and cloud sharing solutions, it just isn’t realistic right now. I actually don’t really think that a standardized and more-secure platform is anywhere in the near future simply because development in the market is driven primarily by shiny flashy things and not with security as a centralized and standardized core component. Unfortunately, it’s going to continue to give crackers the upper hand for years to come.

Kevin

Kevin

The most amazing part of this is that even with a proper explanation, it still seems to be spreading. The cause, a new generation of lazy and under qualified IT staffers think that this will make their lives easier. On top of that, even when discounted, you still have those at the top that choose to flaunt the rules, because they can, this trickles down. It is hard enough to manage five or ten standard builds and devices, multiple that by hundreds. Who supports the crappy big box retail PC systems that do not have the same engineering standards as a real business PC/laptop. What about variations in OS, we are no longer talking of two versions of Windows to support, but five of Android, Chrome OS, OSX, etc…

I have to have hope that this bad idea is nothing but a short lived fad, but with the rapid changes in technology, and the growth of user intelligence in computing, I don’t know. On top of that, Google is definitely the one pushing this as it is to their advantage – and they have credibility in a lot of common users eye’s. However those same users don’t understand that the underpinnings of Google’s free software empire is the borrowing of your data for marketing purposes. Nothing is ever free.