Enough BYOD; now it’s bring your own app
Tired of the endless BYOD stories? Here’s a new one for you. Bring your own app.
Inextricably linked to the ‘Bring Your Own Device’ phenomenon, EMC’s CTO marketing Clive Gold says users introducing their preferred apps is an inevitability which is already happening.
“We bring our own devices because of the user experiences, we add our own apps for the convenience and usefulness they add to our lives. And what’s interesting is that these apps start small and relatively simple, but quickly become sophisticated and powerful.”
With more people ‘born of a different mindset’ – that of having constant access to information – Gold says corporations are under pressure to provide that access.
“The API is the rule right now; companies have to discover mechanisms to provide the data that modern workers want to consume, blend, link, map and understand.”
Big Data is a further factor, Gold continues. “Workers today are master manipulators of data; using their own devices, they are also increasingly bringing apps that they like, they are learning new ways to use them at work by applying various tools to different circumstances and as a result, they are being more productive and are happier, too.”
Risk? Of course, but nothing out of the ordinary, Gold contends.
“It’s the usual things, specifically security of information. It adds to the strain on infrastructure which comes with mobility changing the traffic flows on the network so dramatically – but by taking security out of applications and putting it into the infrastructure, it’s quite straightforward to protect information regardless of where it is,” he explains.
Gold reckons bring your own app is something to be encouraged and embraced. “It’s happening anyway; what do we pay [employees] for? Outcomes – and if they can achieve those outcomes more effectively using self-sourced tools, so much the better.
"Right now, we don’t give people a lot of tools that help them use and take advantage of information. If they can help themselves, so much the better.”
