Any way you look at it, personal mobile end-devices cannot be kept out of the workplace.

"Bring Your Own Device," or "BYOD" for short, is dividing CIOs. On the one hand, the abbreviation could better be translated with "Bring Your Own Disaster" because many fear a worst-case ICT scenario caused by personal smartphones or tablets that are contaminated with viruses and full of security gaps. Others are hoping such devices will create benefits for the company due to increased mobility. Fact: Gartner analysts forecast that by 2014 some 90 percent of all companies will allow access to applications and corporate networks through personal end-devices. The reason for this is clear, as consulting firm A.T. Kearney found out. According to Kearny, BYOD requires investment in the ICT infrastructure for security reasons but could also "permanently increase employee productivity." Employees use tools that they know and like, and the introduction phase is significantly shortened thanks to existing knowledge.

Sophisticated strategy instead of simple administration

However, in order for large companies to profit from this increased productivity, a comprehensive mobile business strategy is needed. This goes beyond the simple registration of smartphones and tablets. It requires cloud-based mobile device management of both devices and the associated applications. The decisive factor here is that such a platform must be flexible and have the option of being expanded with new devices and operating systems.

Productive and secure use

Another important point is the implementation of security and compliance requirements and ultimately integration into the back-end systems up to operation. This is absolutely essential because BYOD in terms of the company cannot mean only "bringing along" personal devices. Rather, employees must also be able to use these devices in the most productive and secure way possible. This necessitates a flexible ICT infrastructure that can respond dynamically to data and application requests per mobile end-device.