Publication: Read Write Web, 28 Dec 2011
Strom's take away: BYOD has been around since the '80s, and the only change is that it is now writ large, thanks to low-cost smartphones, tablets, and Internet-enabled access to corporate data. But he asked the wrong question and missed a much more important point, about how rapid the influx of tablets is changing enterprise IT. Don't ask if BYOD is a trend. Ask what IT leaders are doing about BYOD.
Study after study shows that IT organizations are not ready and not reacting to this exponential growth. Many have done little more than providing basic connectivity for their tablet users.
And that means more than just devices themselves. It means SaaS: the cloud, mobility, social networking, new app delivery and support models and all the inherent opportunities, rewards, and risks (security, privacy, and so on) that come with these. IT organizations that adopt a posture of simply accepting devices into the workplace, and fail to proactively evolve processes and platforms to optimize productivity and minimize risk, are ceding competitive advantage.
