Corporates are either getting jittery about the new BYOD (bring Your Own Device) trend or they are open accepting it with open arms. We can understand why BYOD can make an average CIO or an IT administrator cringe in anticipation of what could go wrong. On the other hand, we can also see why BYOD just makes sense. Add the super power of smartphones and tablets to multi-task and there you have it all.
So, if BYOD will make it to the fore, what else is coming? It’s called BYOS (Bring Your Own Services).
In an IDC survey, it’s clear that more than 50% of companies are already letting their users bring their own smartphones and devices. What’s likely to follow the seemingly huge influx of smartphones are the services users subscribe to on their phones – and this trend, we see, is going to be bigger than BYOD.
If users need questions, they’d go out online and find the answers. Would they need a cloud backup service for whatever data resides on their smartphone? They would subscribe to a free or paid cloud backup service right away. With the phones, you’ll also see a plethora of web-based tools, applications, and software being used.
Big data, huge demand for services from consumers of all kinds, a huge adoption curve for smartphones, and the increase use of mobile devices for both personal and business use – together this builds up enough momentum for BYOD and BYOS.
As usual, companies will have a lot on their plate to mitigate risks, manage security, and ensure data protection. It’s clear that companies don’t have to exercise too much control on their data (at least not all of it). Somehow, crowd logic seems play out here and users themselves seem to self-regulate their data usage, access, storage, and distribution.
Companies can lay down a few ground rules, establish protocols, develop a BYOD policy, welcome the use of BYOS, and let the scene play out. Users can more or less have the freedom to use the phone or mobile tablet they like, subscribe to services for their personal or business use as needed, and companies can benefit from the immense boost in productivity and lowered costs.
If users had access to their own services, companies can obviate the need to indulge in company-wide, expensive purchases. Enterprise plans for all users are only going force users to use services they don’t like. So, why do it in the first place?
Rachel Delacour, CEO of BIME (We are Cloud), wrote an intriguing entry on Wired.com about why Bring Your Own Services is the Next Thing Not to Worry About. She declares that while it could look scary, it’s a phenomenon no one can stop.
Companies have something big to embrace; change is imminent. How will you cope with it? What are your thoughts on BYOS? We’d love to hear from you.
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