In many companies across the country, the use of mobile devices like tablets and smartphones is increasingly common. Even if it is something as simple as checking email, more employees are using these gadgets in the workplace.
Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategies have a number of benefits, but there is much more to running a system successfully than just connecting an iPad to a company’s wireless network. As a recent white paper from Aerohive addresses, network preparedness, enhanced connectivity, remote access, authentication and security and enforcement are just a few of the things that companies need to shore up before a BYOD solution can increase productivity. On top of that, there are several outside factors that can affect this.
“Let’s assume for a minute a perfect world where all the attached clients are perfectly connected, the network is working like a dream at full performance, and every single user is perfectly happy with his or her ability to connect any device to the network and get the proper permissions defined by the administrator,” reads the report. “Even so, enabling BYOD and especially company-issued consumer devices means users will want to actually use their device to connect and interact with network resources and services.”
That refers to things like printing directly from a smartphone or projecting a file from a tablet onto the big screen in the conference room. With a completely integrated system, using these devices can be extremely beneficial.
Businesses that open up a BYOD strategy need to ready for much more than plug-and-play. By partnering with an IT consulting firm that is familiar with with technology initiatives such as an iPad deployment, any company can get a leg up on the competition.
