Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 05 | Page 79

EDITOR’S QUESTION Dan Smith Head of Integrated Marketing, MEA, Xerox’s Developing Markets Operations CIOs can take numerous measures to ensure BYOD is implemented across the organisation without endangering security protocols. There are some basic policies that enterprises across the board should enforce when it comes to BYOD. One of the biggest issues we face while dealing with BYOD is security. When users bring their own device and technology, whether that’s mobile phone, laptop, tablets, a policy should be in place to ensure that the data is secure and that the users are not bringing viruses, malwares inside the network. Another factor that the enterprises should take into consideration is concurrency. There should be a policy to ensure that the devices that the users use are compatible with the standard and existing infrastructure and also within the current network of the enterprises. Depending upon the way the BYOD is implemented there are enterprises that put forth a policy that www.intelligentcio.com controls the use of operating systems. In many enterprises, a lot of people are advised to use only certain operating systems as using a different operating system could result in interoperability as well as network connection issues. In Xerox while we are allowed to bring our own devices into our corporate networks, we are encouraged to use guest networks rather than standard corporate networks to which we are authenticated to. Overall, the key factor, is that the IT department understands why users want to bring their own devices and construct policies to allow those activities. More efficiency and more productive users are happy users as well. When it comes to using BYOD facility the employees need to recognise that they are being given opportunities to use this facility and should take necessary precautions in terms of securing their devices and comply with the rulings and policies that the enterprises put forth. INTELLIGENTCIO 79