Another issue with much of the BYOD hype is that it’s tied to VDI--that is, provide a virtual desktop image to the end users' devices and lock that image down. The issue here is that most tablet or smartphone users like the device for the native experience it provides and do not want to use it as a standard desktop. Anyone who’s used VDI on a tablet understands that it offers value for some tasks but it’s not ideal.
To avoid disaster with a BYOD plan, you need to decide what, if any, business value it brings. One great example is recruiting and maintaining talent. Health care is a great use case for this. At many hospitals and doctor offices, health care providers have laptops on carts or netbooks that they bring to patient rooms. These are cumbersome and inefficient for the required task of patient data entry. Tablets, on the other hand, work quite well for this, and add additional benefits such as easier cleanup/sterilization.
Providing functionality for tablets may assist in keeping top talent. Your first task should be identifying the groups that can benefit from BYOD and narrowing the scope as much as possible. This can and should include user groups, supported devices, and possibly whether they are issued devices or actual BYOD.
Next you’ll need to consider the user experience provided. In most cases, a virtual desktop won’t be appropriate for tablets and phones. This is where the concepts of private and public cloud come in. The services your employees use can be provided through native applications that rely on cloud-based software hosted internally or externally. This model provides the native user experience with the required productivity. (For more information on delivering services, see http://www.networkcomputing.com/private-cloud/231000980.)
Another emerging concept that should be assessed is virtualization for phones and tablets. These products offer the potential for employees to use a phone of their choice and maintain separate images for work and personal use, complete with contact, calendar, and so on. This provides the ability to lock down a corporate image while the employee maintains complete freedom with his or her own image. For example, if an employee is terminated, the corporate image can be remote-wiped, removing key contacts and other data as well as the company issued phone number.
Don’t get caught up in the BYOD hype and start down a road that leads to cost and complexity. Assess your organization's needs and the groups that would benefit from BYOD. Decide which devices make sense and who will pay for those devices. Find the most efficient delivery model for the services that will run on those devices, and default to a native user experience where possible. BYOD has both the potential for acceleration of parts of your business and disaster for IT support and costs.
Disclaimer: In my primary role I work with several products and vendors mentioned here. This article is not an endorsement of those products or vendors.
