back to article BYOD might be a hipster honeypot but it's rarely worth the extra hassle

I have a confession: I've fallen out of love with Bring Your Own Device. Over the years, I've worked with, and administered, a number of BYOD schemes. I've even written positive things about BYOD. After all, what was not to love? Users providing the mobile equipment and the company not needing to worry about maintaining the …

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  1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

    Just four years ago, Gartner reckoned by 2017 half of employers would be leaning on staff to supply their own smartphones or tablets.

    ...and there's the crux of it. A gartner report paid for by pushers of software to "manage" third party devices in a corporate environment.

    <sarcasm>Not that any of us with any experience were in a position to predict that in general BYOD was a waste of time and money and only shifted the accounting focus from one area to another while savaging network and data security. Oh wait, we did. </sarcasm>

    For many organisations BYOD was/is acceptable for mobile devices - partly because they are more locked down and isolatable than a PC but also because many users do not want to carry two devices, and often two chargers, around with them. However on the PC front it was pretty much a non-starter from the off and while as is life, there will be a few examples of it working there will be a lot more where it won't or can't.

    1. big_D Silver badge

      My current employer doesn't do BYOD. Most project managers run around with 2 phones in their pockets.

      The standard phones are iPhone 5S, probably switching to a 6 shortly or a Samsung Galaxy S6 (I think this is switching to an S7) or a Huawei P8...

      No personal notebooks or PCs allowed on the network etc.

      It is too much of a headache and most people don't have the first clue about technology - most people I know have a 6 or 7 year old PC or a 5 or 6 year old iPad or Samsung Galaxy tablet at home. They don't care about keeping it up to date, security is an alien term...

      It might work in a high-tech company, but in "normal" companies, it just isn't worth thinking about.

    2. Blank Reg

      I don't know anyone with any relevant experience who thought BYOD was anything other than stupid. It was a dumb idea that was probably pushed by clueless bean counters trying to get millions of dollars of rapidly depreciating devices off their books.

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        "I don't know anyone with any relevant experience who thought BYOD was anything other than stupid."

        Also, interestingly, nearly everyone *did* have relevant experience because, let's be honest, how many IT staff have not at some point been asked by "the boss" to hook their latest shiny to the company network.

        Apparently Gartner are the only people on the planet who didn't know this. Colour me surprised.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        and....

        ...clueless digital directors who talk bollocks but consistently get away with talking bollocks.

    3. Robert Moore
      Megaphone

      Just four years ago, Garner reckoned by 2017 half of employers would be leaning on staff to supply their own smartphones or tablets.

      Repeat after me:

      Gartner is ALWAYS wrong.

      Gartner is ALWAYS wrong.

      Gartner is ALWAYS wrong.

      GARTNER IS ALWAYS WRONG!!!!!.

      1. boatsman

        gartner is always wrong..... and a track record to proove it.....

        ---199x the mainframe will disappear in 5 yrs time : NOT

        --- 1999 : gartner says the datacenter is going to be windows only : NOT

        --- 2002 gartner says windows server will dominate the internet NOT

        --- 2003 private datacenters will disappear in the next 5 yrs NOT

        -- 201x the cloud will be 30% of spending in 5 years NOT ( it's at 1.5% at the moment )

        and so on, and so on......

      2. RatX

        I'd like to expand on this - you can pretty much substantiate any view you like with Gartner data. Yet corporate fatheads lap up the results of their "studies" as if they are guaranteed the truth, rather than sponsored shilling.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      " <sarcasm>Not that any of us with any experience were in a position to predict that in general BYOD was a waste of time and money and only shifted the accounting focus from one area to another while savaging network and data security. Oh wait, we did. </sarcasm> "

      Yup. I used to work for Logica, and I remember management touting the idea of BYOD several times. Fortunately, enough of the guys who had risen up the ranks in the support side of things could rattle off an estimate off the top of their heads as to how much it would cost client-facing teams in lost time, how many bids we'd be likely to stuff up in a given year due to technical failures etc etc.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    And that's why ladies and gentlemen....

    ...us veterans of IT refuse to listen to bullshit bingo.

    Next year, why cloud is not better than on prem ...when you suddenly find the latest version of locked in Office no longer talks to the latest version of your payroll system; and your sales system has broken a key feature of your sales teams functionality, because "only a small number of people were using this feature, we discontinued it and replaced with super-duper confusing, over spec'd, Chrome only release (also to be ceased in 2 years time)"

    1. big_D Silver badge

      Re: And that's why ladies and gentlemen....

      Exactly, and you have 200 people sitting at the end of a 10mbps bit of string, but connected locally with gigabit Ethernet with a 70gbps central backbone and a 10gbps between buildings.

      Keeping as much of that traffic as possible on the 70gbps backbone keeps your workers a lot more efficient than makes them all share 10mbps.

  3. Khaptain Silver badge

    If you don't own it

    If you don't own it, you can't control it, if you can't control it, it will eventually control you....

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No hassle here.

    Company with over 1000 employees, and use MobileIron platform, and insist on Android (not iOS), and rollout has been painless and works really well. As our entire platform is Android (as most of the world is Android), we don't have any app compatibility headaches, and we can lock out really old Android devices that aren't patched to at least a reasonable level. No security issues, no app issues, no support issues, it just works, and saved us massive amounts of resources/money/frustration/training that we used to suffer. Users are happy, management are happy, IT are happy.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: hassle here.

      use MobileIron platform...Users are happy, management are happy, IT are happy.

      Yeah, I been a lucky user, having that POS "Mobileiron" foisted on me. Not in a BYOD environment, but even so the blasted software regularly required user setup taking half an hour a time (and a complete start to finish repeat when half the time the setup didn't work), which across a large organisation is a vast waste of staff time, the regular updates are disruptive, and not infrequently bugger up user settings and then screw the network connectivity.

      Maybe your 1,000 employees are happy, but I can find you 8,000 who aren't. Of course, it doesn't help when IT departments compound this concept of making connectivity difficult for users, and adopt their own bean-counting mentality, and buy cheap, crap low end handsets (eg Sammy J3) that then struggle with the software, or they buy "on paper" competent phones that nobody in the real world would ever spend their own money on (a big shout out to Microsoft there).

      1. Randy Hudson

        S9E1: Foisted!

        1. ikec

          Shoulda been lampin'...

    2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Re: No hassle here.

      "As our entire platform is Android (as most of the world is Android), we don't have any app compatibility headaches, and we can lock out really old Android devices that aren't patched to at least a reasonable level"

      So its your kit then? Employees are free to buy whatever they want for themselves to use and keep it as long as they feel its worth using, and if its not compatible then you provide an alternative?

      So how is this BYOD?

      1. c1ue

        Re: No hassle here.

        The original poster is talking about adding a service which is used to manage BYOD. MobileIron sticks a couple of servers between users and the core network.

        Or in other words, an outsourced BYOD policy and security maintenance program.

        Agree on the original sentiment - it isn't really BYOD if you're forcing users out of "using whatever they want".

        The original poster also talked only about mobile - which is odd. Apparently an app only company somehow.

        Also agree that patch control, other security, IT support and so forth makes BYOD a nightmare.

    3. Amos1

      Re: No hassle here.

      Wow, I didn't know managers read El Reg.

      1. chivo243 Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: No hassle here.

        @Amos1

        "Wow, I didn't know managers read El Reg."

        They do what now? Even the comments?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No hassle here.

      Company with over 1000 employees, and use MobileIron platform, and insist on Android (not iOS), and rollout has been painless and works really well.

      This isn't a BYOD solution. It doesnt solve the issues discussed (laptops, desktops, macbooks etc).

      Did you read the article?

      1. PickledAardvark

        Re: No hassle here.

        "This isn't a BYOD solution. It doesnt solve the issues discussed (laptops, desktops, macbooks etc)."

        Universities have operated a policy of Connect Your Crap (CYC) for donkeys years. UK ISPs grew up around 1992/1993 when universities recognised that TCP/IP rather than Coloured Books was the future. If we ignore dial up connections, universities have operated CYC for 25 years using different filtering methods. It has been great for staff and students to control experiments or to check the state of a batch job or find out the day of the week.

        Universities don't intentionally allow any fool employee to plug into an ethernet socket but IT departments recognise their imperfections. There are idiot managed devices on university networks -- mostly on the public side away from anything that matters. University IT staff punch huge security holes to make it easy to work from home.

        Understanding that suspect devices will turn up inside a network is part of the defence. You can't assume to keep all out -- most, perhaps. The concept of Demilitarised Zones (DMZs) gets silly if the most valuable targets in your organisation walk around with laptops which they use with hotel wi-fi and then plug into your network.

        Mobile Device Management software may help -- unless it becomes a bigger target.

        Your choices are to act like a nuclear power station and to own 100% the relationship with computer devices. Or to understand that mobile devices are threats and opportunities, and there's naff all you can do about it other than to do a good job.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: No hassle here.

          Ah University, where people learn what it is like to get your laptop screwed over by malware 30 seconds after being connected.

        2. Orv Silver badge

          Re: No hassle here.

          At the universities I've worked for, the distinction between the "public" and "private" side of the network is pretty blurry. Mostly corporate network admins would be absolutely horrified. By long custom the networks are nearly wide open, with only very minimal packet filtering. (When you have dozens of independently-managed departments all wanting to do their own thing, locking down the border with a strict firewall is not likely to go over well.) Generally they use pretty extensive network monitoring systems to detect misbehavior, and null-route infected PCs until they're fixed. Dorm networks get particularly careful attention here.

      2. Midnight

        Re: No hassle here.

        This isn't a BYOD solution. It doesnt solve the issues discussed (laptops, desktops, macbooks etc).

        Did you read the article?

        I thought you knew. The comments section switched to a Bring Your Own Article policy several months ago. It adds a little bit of administrative overhead and may have some minor impact on the coherency of comments, but we feel that it makes the users happier in the long run.

    5. Jonathan 27

      Yeah...

      There is no way I'd install MobileIron's crapware on my personal phone. If my employer told me that, I'd ask them when they'd be issuing me a company phone.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Yeah...

        We give employees an allowance to buy their own phone, in exchange for doing so, we install MobileIron. It's a 2 way deal, and the employees are generally very happy. They get free wifi at work, access to theri calendar, messaging, we push one app, that's all, and have a policy they they use a lockscreen. We can wipe the device if it's gets lost/stolen.

        MobileIron is not a fixed thing, we have taken a moderate approach to how it's used, and not used some of it's more draconian policies, and as such, don't really have any problems at all with it. Saying I had it once and it was crap, it like saying all cars are crap, as you had a Ford Fiesta when you were 17 and it rotted out after a couple of years.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Yeah...

          We have a policy that allows the whole device to be wiped when we leave the firm. That's why I use a burner for work.

    6. boatsman

      Re: No hassle here. .... over here it was..

      a nightmare to implement, and it takes an entire team to run and maintain and costs a ton.

      handing out a bunch of locked down company kit would've been a lot cheaper.

    7. CustardGannet
      Stop

      Re: No hassle here.

      No security issues, no app issues, no support issues... Users are happy, management are happy, IT are happy

      ...pigs are fuelled and ready for take-off.

  5. jake Silver badge

    Break Your Own Defenses

    At least it does what it advertises.

    1. Amos1

      Re: Break Your Own Defenses

      Bring Your Own Disaster. Of course, corporate-owned isn't much better:

      Scene 1: User reports they lost their phone with corporate data on it. You remotely wipe it.

      Scene 2: User finds it a week later right where they left it. User screams loud and long because they lost Baby's First Birthday Party pictures.

      Scene 3: No one reports a lost device in a timely manner ever again.

      1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

        Re: Break Your Own Defenses

        There is a simple fix for that, as its a corporate device you practice a monthly test of wipe-reinstall so only corporate synced data remains long-term. And you TELL the users this will happen and send a reminder a day or so before the appointed test cycle.

        As a useful side-effect, you know the remote wipe works, and the phone is unlikely to fall over due to it being stuffed with cat videos (insert your own entendre about "pussy or cougar?").

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Break Your Own Defenses

          "There is a simple fix for that, as its a corporate device you practice a monthly test of wipe-reinstall so only corporate synced data remains long-term. "

          But it's not a corporate device. It's a private device. That's the whole point of BYOD.

          1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

            Re: Break Your Own Defenses

            "But it's not a corporate device. It's a private device. That's the whole point of BYOD."

            Apologies if not clear, but I was responding to the assertion from Amos1 that "Of course, corporate-owned isn't much better"

        2. imanidiot Silver badge
          Alert

          Re: Break Your Own Defenses

          ^What Paul Crawford said^. Corporate data should not be on a private phone. The reverse should also be true. If you haven't removed those pics from your corporate phone that's YOUR fault, not the companies.

  6. pavel.petrman

    Bring your own attack vector.

    I believe I've read this correct definition here on the register some time ago and have been using it as the correct term ever since - to much nodding of system and network admins everywhere.

  7. SVV

    Why stop there?

    Once you've got peole to accept that they must spend the money you pay them to buy a device to do their work on, the possibility to take this idea further opens up. First up you could try BYOS (Buy your own stationery), and progress towards BYODAC (Buy your own desk and chair). Hell, some of these beardie suckers you wrote about might even fall for RYOOS (Rent your own office space) if you can convince them that you're the hippest, newest thing in town.

    To summarise article : money you save getting the fools who work for you to buy the kit they need for work will be offset by money it costs to handle all the different brands, OS versions, customisations, etc. Who would have thought that providing standard kit for everyone with standard configurations might work out cheaper?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why stop there?

      @RVV - "RYOOS (Rent your own office space)"

      El-Reg is a head of the curve here, I swear this is what the Aussie hacks do already!!

    2. DavCrav

      Re: Why stop there?

      We're just been told we have to BYOBL: bring your own bin liners. And then empty our own rubbish bins.

    3. jMcPhee

      Re: Why stop there?

      They called it 'telecommuting'. Looks like it's busting, too.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why stop there?

      First up you could try BYOS (Buy your own stationery)

      This does formally happen, and I've seen it at several companies, but not with a formal declaration of BYOS. You just stop people ordering their own stationery from catalogues, and source it all for them, but make sure it's total crap. So paper pads made of paper discarded as too weak by tissue makers, shitty nasty cheap blot-making ball pens, sticky tape that disintegrates before you can get it off the reel, 1950's technology scissors that won't cut paper or string, staplers that can't put a staple through more than five sheets of paper.

      When you've got such cheap, poor quality stationery, nobody steals the sticky tape at Christmas, most people buy themselves decent pens for work, and buy their own Red & Black notebooks.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why stop there?

        A/C, can I have my pen back you nicked off me...I know it's you.

      2. Joe Gurman

        Re: Why stop there?

        What are these "paper," "pens," and "staplers" of which you speak?

        I remember vaguely using such things in the 20th century, but not so much recently.

    5. Laura Kerr

      Re: Why stop there?

      People who really are on the bleeding edge will then go all the way with PYOW (Pay Your Own Wages). That one's gonna be big, I tell ya, huge!

      1. jelabarre59

        Re: Why stop there?

        People who really are on the bleeding edge will then go all the way with PYOW (Pay Your Own Wages). That one's gonna be big, I tell ya, huge!

        I think that's commonly known as a "summer internship".

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Works for me....

    Here, we are VDI and it works good. We use little thin client linux boxes in the office, and when wfh or traveling can use what we want. When wfh, I have a multi screen pc based set up which I use to actually get work done, and an ancient linux laptop which gets used on warmer, quieter afternoons from the garden. As it's VDI, they both perform pretty much identically. I'm poor / despise apple stuff, but the bearded east london dwellers can do work on their MacBooks in independent coffee shops. When this was introduced, and they took away our lappys, I was most skeptical. But it just works.

    1. BebopWeBop
      Joke

      Re: Works for me....

      I'm poor / despise apple stuff

      correlation or cause?

  9. K
    Coffee/keyboard

    Just four years ago, Gartner reckoned by 2017....

    And if you look back, El Reg was peddling article after article about this - Yet if you read all the comments from the same period, nearly every (clued up) el-reg reader called this bollocks!

    So next time El Reg, rather than referencing Gartner, who we know are charlatans... Listen to the real experts - Your dear readers who are at the coalface, rather than academics and PFY's who can bearly produce stubble!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: academics and PFY's who can bearly produce stubble!

      I'd have thought bears were quite good at producing stubble ... assuming you ever managed to successfully shave one, that is.

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