With practically all the people you know walking around with more computing power in their pockets than could have been mustered by an army of lab-coated technicians a few decades ago, it’s not surprising that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is the now thing. What is surprising, though, is how some companies, software publishers, other vendors, and corporate employees themselves seem to be treating the implications of this change.
Gartner, the IT research and advisory company, defines BYOD as "an alternative strategy allowing employees, business partners and other users to utilize a personally selected and purchased client device to execute enterprise applications and access data." There are variations in which devices are personally selected but purchased by the company (for example, COPE: Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled), but most of the BYOD world is just what you think it is: people using their own smartphones, tablets, laptops even game consoles, smart TVs, or other smart devices with internet access to perform two functions that have been protected by high walls since the beginning of the Information Age: execute enterprise applications and access data. This article discusses some of the unintended (or unanticipated) consequences of companies adopting a BYOD strategy.
