Developing a BYOD Infrastructure

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) will continue to grow and be a major challenge/opportunity for businesses in the years to come. The advantages of BYOD are numerous including the following:

• Reduced costs and responsibility for securing and maintaining smartphones and service plans.
• Simplified telecomputing for traveling or working from home. Employees can access and respond to projects anytime, anywhere.
• Centralized control and management as opposed to device-based control.
• Streamlined application support.

BYOD allows IT to focus on network and application deployment via network as opposed to work on a device by device basis. In addition to a robust BYOD policy (see BYOD Policy Essentials), IT must invest in an infrastructure that can support and adapt to BYOD needs. Basically, IT needs to implement a network environment that can deliver applications from a centralized managed system. By delivering data and providing network access via a common, secured methodology, IT can set automated governance policies in place.

Some of the infrastructure challenges that you should plan for include transitioning to the following:

• Application virtualization -By delivering web-based application from a central server, IT improves manageability, compatibility, and portability of applications.
• Desktop virtualization – A client-server environment allows IT to manage all devices remotely from a central server.
• Network Segmentation -By segmenting assets, resources, and applications in secure compartments, IT can increase security and limit access.
• Network Access Control (NAC) – Connecting to the network via  NAC allows IT to created a tiered-access based on device identification. This also allows IT to monitor and track all devices connected to network.
• Manage Bandwidth Allocation – Network bandwidth must be monitored, managed and scaled as needed based on current and projected usage.

If your company is grappling with BYOD and its impact on your organization, contact Integracon for both the strategic insights and infrastructure know-how. Call us at 865-330-2323 or visit Integracon to chat with someone who can help.