Paulo Ferreira, Samsung Mobile SA

Bringing any device into the enterprise is BAD, according to Paulo Ferreira, head of enterprise mobility at Samsung Mobile SA.

“BYOD [bring your own device] should not be bring any device at all – BYOD is not BAD [bring any device],” said Ferreira, speaking at the ITWeb Mobility Summit, in Bryanston. “We need to be a little bit cautious about this trend.

“Devices are starting to be used in a more productive type of environment, for collaboration, messaging and business intelligence, and there is an abundant view in terms of the horizontal applications that exist,” he said. “Why is this happening? Because there is a shift from a consumer environment to a business type of environment.”

There are numerous trends driving this shift, said Ferreira, such as cheaper and faster mobile data and more widespread availability of WiFi, as well as Moore’s Law, which predicts the constant improvement of hardware and software specs. There is also the explosion of mobile devices, a growing number of device categories, and the growth of mobile apps. “The saying ‘there’s an app for that’ is true in the enterprise space as well,” he observed.

According to Ferreira, the effect of these trends is that a new category of consumer has been created: the individual-liable user, or ‘prosumer’, who buys smart devices independently. “The prosumer wants that new smartphone, gets it, and will start requesting access to corporate IT and assets on a very powerful device. They’ll get access to e-mail, WiFi, the enterprise network – and enterprise IT response can range from ‘we don’t support that’ to ‘how can I secure and manage that device?’”

The corporate-liable segment of the smartphone market – those users who receive devices from employers – is growing faster than the consumer segment, noted Ferreira, and the individual- liable segment is growing faster than both. “That’s the user who’s going to be driving and placing more pressure on corporate IT.”

The solution, said Ferreira, is for corporate IT to enable more responsive and pragmatic BYOD safeguarding, maintaining awareness of the trends in the industry and how they affect tech decisions. Important capabilities to consider are over-the-air encryption and data encryption, as well as the capacity for remote find, wipe or kill, in the instance of lost devices or employees leaving the company.

Virtualisation and containerisation can help to deal with the complications of having work and personal data on a single mobile device, he added. “For the enterprise, it helps to configure the employee’s corporate profile and provides security enhancement, because it can isolate corporate and personal data. For the employee, it provides a work-life balance and allows separation of personal and work data, keeping private data private.”

Ultimately, concluded Ferreira, enterprises should “embrace consumerisation and BYOD, but take a balanced approach. Implement an enterprise mobility strategy, and implement new policies where needed.”