Why Everyone Gets It Wrong About BYOD 377
snydeq writes "Brian Katz offers a simple take on the buzz around BYOD in business organizations these days: 'BYOD is only an issue because people refuse to realize that it's just about ownership — nothing more and nothing less.' A 'hidden issue' hiding in plain view, BYOD's ownership issue boils down to money and control. 'BYOD is pretty clear: It's bringing your own device. It isn't the company's device or your best friend's device. It's your device, and you own it. Because you own the device, you have certain rights to what is on the device and what you can do with the device. This is the crux of every issue that comes with BYOD programs.'"
Re:BYOD means I/T loses some control over it (Score:5, Informative)
Both devices have plenty of support for HTTP proxies.
Android Gingerbread lets you set a single HTTP proxy which applies to all networks. That means device owners have to manually enter and clear the proxy settings as they move between the office network and their home network. Not that it matters - almost all apps ignore the proxy settings anyway.
Android ICS and Jellybean let you set an HTTP proxy per wifi network, which at least means the user isn't expected to reconfigure the phone all the time. Most apps still ignore the proxy settings. Most of the apps that do pay attention to the proxy settings don't support authenticated proxy servers.
All recent versions of iOS allow the proxy and authentication credentials to be set on a per wifi network basis. That's excellent. Except that most apps (including a good chunk of the stock iOS apps that Apple ship with the phone) either ignore the proxy settings entirely or fail to support authenticated proxy servers. (Yes, Apple is aware of these problems - there are bug reports in their bug tracking system that have been open for several years, they aren't interested in fixing them).
Even then, Squid has a transparent proxy option.
Transparent proxying only works for HTTP, not HTTPS unless you are going to MITM all the sessions (which involves installing certificates on all the clients). And even then, you can't authenticate the users if you're proxying transparently.
Re:BYOD means I/T loses some control over it (Score:4, Informative)
Could you tell a bit more, please? What are use cases for those BYOD devices, what kinds of data and applications they're used for?
The primary BYOD users are a global sales force and executive staff. The core applications are email and calendar, which is pretty typical. I'd guess something close to 100% use those two. Other deployed applications are VDI, IM/presence, VoIP, sales process, commissions visibility, and expenses. Android and iOS have the most support, and new stuff generally launches on iOS first and Android second. Blackberry is supported, but I don't know what the story is with the various flavors of mobile Microsoft platforms. Could be we support them, I've never been interested enough to look.
We publish white papers on our BYOD deployment and have detailed statistics about what kinds of devices are being used and their growth rates. It's interesting stuff. I don't want to get more specific than that because we also manufacture things that could be used in a BYOD solution, and I don't want anyone to think I'm shilling or astroturfing.
Re:BYOD means I/T loses some control over it (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry to tell you this, but you're not doing your job. As a network administrator, your job is to make sure that the people using the network are able to do the tasks they need for their job.
Yes BYOD means you need to be careful about what happens on the network, but it does not mean the network will instantly fall over if you, the network administrator, is even half competent. What it also means in many (most?) companies is significant productivity gains for the people using the network, and ultimately, that's why you're there – to facilitate their productivity, not to sit in your ivory tower with your pristine "perfect" network that actually doesn't do what the users need it to.
Re: BYOD means I/T loses some control over it (Score:5, Informative)
The technically adept people (read R&D dept) are the bane of our existence, as they constantly need changes made / make changes without consulting us.
Only because you insist on having control.