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Survey: Two-Thirds of IT Pros Say BYOD Connectivity Increases Company Costs
According to a study conducted by Lieberman Software, 67 percent of IT pros say that bring your own device (BYOD) policies in the enterprise increases the cost to companies.
Contrary to the belief that BYOD would lower costs due to employees bringing their own hardware into the enterprise, 43 percent of respondents said that the "biggest headache" for enacting such a policy would be an increase in virus infections -- which respondents said would negate any cost-saving benefits.
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Coming in at second on the "headache" list with 26 percent is the concern of employees losing the connected devices. This could lead to increased security costs if the lost device attached to a corporate network ended up in the wrong hands.
Philip Lieberman, president and CEO of the security software firm that conducted the survey, said that the BYOD movement is nothing more than a simple marketing ploy by companies like Apple who want to include their devices into a corporate ecosystem that don't have the proper security protocol in place.
"We've been here before. It's the same classic back door sales process used to promote PCs in the 1980s, where the large IT shops controlled both the glass house and what was on the desktops," said Lieberman. "Back then users and managers would show how PCs were better, faster and more flexible than the 'stone age' solutions offered by IT. Ultimately IT was forced to adopt PCs as their corporate standard. The new twist today is that the interlopers are devices that will always be owned by the consumer, not the company."
Lieverman Software's poll of 250 London IT professionals echo the findings of a July Osterman Research report that said the adoption of employee smartphones, tablets and PCs would bring rising costs in the form of an increased IT staff.
And the increase in IT staff and training, along with the increased security risk, make implementing BYOD support not worth it, no matter the level of convenience it brings to the employees, said Lieberman.
"In an effort to meet the demand of BYOD, enterprises are being forced to employ soft certificates with diminished security," said Lieberman. "While end-users might love the convenience, a lost or compromised device can fast become a nightmare for the CIO. Make sure you understand what you’re opening the organization up to when you allow, or even encourage, your workforce to bring their own devices."