With the festive season over, manufacturers can reflect on bumper sales of smartphones, tablets and laptops. Tablet sales grew by over 250% throughout 2011.* Sales figures released in January by many retailers, from John Lewis to Argos, were bolstered by sales of personal computers and other consumer tech products.
Millions of people worldwide are the proud owners of shiny new mobile Christmas presents. On their return to work, these devices have gone with them. IT managers might be afraid, but there are real business opportunities.
‘Bring-your-own-device’ (BYOD) policies aren’t new, but they are becoming increasingly common.
An interesting point is that businesses are starting to realise that there are more benefits to these schemes than simply keeping employees happy.
Citrix launched a BYOD programme three years ago and has already achieved its targeted 20% IT cost savings. Other businesses are enjoying increased flexibility, as more employees can work remotely or out of hours.
Less tangibly, but no less importantly, employees who can choose which device to work from are happier, more efficient and more productive.
The concern is, of course, security.
As BYOD schemes multiply, those of us in the business of deploying desktop virtualisation tools are in a great position. VDI is the backbone of any BYOD policy, ensuring that everything from a corporate issue laptop to a brand new Christmas iPad can connect safely and securely to the business network.
53% of IT professionals in the UK have implemented desktop virtualisation tools to support the influx of employee-owned devices – an encouraging figure.** It underlines how mainstream VDI is becoming – but leaves plenty of space for new deployments!
As Christmas presents bring a fresh influx of employee demands for BYOD policies, it is great to be able to deliver the tools that make them safe. BYOD and VDI projects can work together to create better businesses.
*Latest figures from market research firm NPD DisplaySearch.
An interesting aspect of the increase in BYOD initiatives is that these mobile devices are fantastic for content consumption and less good at content creation. Access to the corporate network and to cloud based services is fundamental in making these devices useful. Without pervasive connectivity and access to content these devices are unable to reach their true potential.
ReplyDeleteThis mobility requirement is hard to address due to the wide variety of devices employees wish to use and the fact they are personally owned and not corporately owned resources.
A flexible, secure and easy to use wireless network is fundamental in getting the most productivity from the new generation of BYOD users. Without this access these users could be lost to just another game of Angry Birds while they wait for the IT team to catch up. . .