Bring Your Own Acronym

The industry just can't seem to settle on a solid acronym that describes the current mobile fiasco for businesses. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), as a term, has been around for quite a while, but as time has progressed and BYOD has seen stiff opposition due to hidden costs, others have begun weighing in to help evolve the movement into something that actually works. With each change, a new acronym emerges.

Over the past few months, we've seen and heard…

Now, a couple new acronyms have been posed by a managed communications services company out of the UK. In a recent, 16 page report, Azzurri Communications Limited, took data from 300 respondents and developed CYOD and DBYOD to better address the concerns that has caused BYOD to stall across many industries.

The report is worth a read, even beyond just learning the newly brandished acronyms. 16 pages is a lot smaller report than many I've read, but the data contained within is probably some of the most interesting and applicable. As an example, Azzurri's reports suggests that only 9% of companies surveyed reported that BYOD was the best option for their business.

The report is available online at the following location: BYOD, CYOD OR DBYOD?

In the end, though, the acronym is not important. In fact, the entire BYOD movement is unimportant. For whichever policies and solutions your company decides to implement, there will be costs, and most of them hidden and only realized during implementation. However, the critical piece here is that devices need to be managed. They need to be managed in a way that protects the company from liability, privacy leaks, and security issues. End-users will always screw up. They can find another job and move on. However, allowing an end-user's screw-up to cost the business in perilous ways is the biggest hidden factor of BYOD. Instead of focusing too hard on acronyms or poorly thought out industry engagements, get back to doing what IT does best, which is protecting the business against technology failure.