Will the attempt to conquer Employee Workspace, Numb the famed BYOD strategy and turn the Devices Dumb?
Data centers are amazon-ed. Applications are SaaS-ed. Cloud Computing tasted success in the Enterprise Space. We shouted ‘aye.’ The Enterprise DC Infra and Apps space are done.
Let us get down a step on the ladder. Desktops and Laptops are not big infra items. But when their numbers cross thousands; when they are spread across many geographical boundaries, when most of the laptops go home every evening or connect from home offices; when you need replacement plans, when you need provisioning at short notice; when you need to configure right apps and patch all the thousands; and when you need to track how each of these desktops and laptops are used by individual Employees… it is a considerable effort and pain.
We actively promoted BYOD strategies enabling our employees to bring their own devices to work, saved time & money from on-demand provisioning of machines, and even enabled mobility. We did live with the issue of proliferation of devices, we figured a way to live with employee devices that run both personal and office apps. We also knew employee walks out of office in the evening with company data on their device and it was not new as data went out of office door even when employee carried a company-provisioned Laptop.
We said BYOD strategy is also an employee friendly HR strategy. However, we now realize that being in control of business data and ensuring its security comes high up on our priority compared to being friendly with BYOD. A single security miss or a misuse can become a business risk. Every single hour of delay in provisioning or patching or in an employee’s ability to work is a business loss.
How would the picture look for the famous BYOD strategy and all those Employee’s fancy devices? I would recall the old days of dumb terminals. When all action and control stayed on the mainframe.
Imagine walking into an office with your Laptop or a Tablet. Plug into the Internet signs into your Cloud Workspace app. You are up and running to do everything that your company needs to work on. All the company’s applications, including your Mailbox – Chat - MS Office - all enterprise apps related to your function, are deployed on Cloud and they get provisioned to you for your access when you login into the Cloud App.
The Enterprise Employee Workspace Cloud App you log into, via any Internet connection, knows what applications an Employee should be given access to. There is no need to install anything on your BYOD device. No need to VPN and no more WAN connections. No tokens to carry and no more waiting at customs to receive certified laptops at offshore. Cloud computing for Employee use will be remotely provisioned and controlled. Our device is just a gateway. Nothing sticks onto the Device when we walk out of the door in the evening.
In the new world of Cloud Computing for the Employee of the Enterprise, super smart Devices we bring to the office might go dumb. The wheel is turning.
Krishna, thought provoking article. However, for it to become a reality, we need infrastructure (power, high speed internet, etc) that is operating at 100% levels without any down time. That day is not far off, though, it might be mighty challenging for both developed and developing countries. It may still not address the data security requirement since wherever a cloud can be accessed, so is the data....
ReplyDeleteKrishna, thought provoking article. However, for it to become a reality, we need infrastructure (power, high speed internet, etc) that is operating at 100% levels without any down time. That day is not far off, though, it might be mighty challenging for both developed and developing countries. It may still not address the data security requirement since wherever a cloud can be accessed, so is the data....
ReplyDelete