BYOD Vs. CYOD: Helping Your Clients Understand The Difference

By Michael Kienzle, Product Marketing Specialist, Digium

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies are leaving many IT teams feeling a bit uneasy. As a trusted VAR, your clients may be ready for a conversation about moving to a CYOD or Choose Your Own Device policy. So, what is the difference between the two? Simply put, CYOD can offer more security and more control. You could also think of CYOD as “Chaperone Your Own Devices” and take control of the unsupervised party that is BYOD.

While you may already work with client companies that have established BYOD policies, those policies could bring unwanted IT security and management issues that could not only compromise your clients’ businesses, but also the products or services you provide or manage for clients. BYOD security concerns often stem from a device being compromised in a way that could allow access to company data, or that could jeopardize data (via malware, for example). Whereas, IT management issues can range from simply struggling to keep track of multiple operating systems to protecting the integrity of the client’s network from the dozens (or hundreds) of business applications their employees use for work. According to an IDG survey of 1,600 senior IT security and technology purchase decision-makers, more than half reported experiencing serious violations of personal mobile device use. These issues could be resolved or minimized with a CYOD policy.

Moving away from the BYOD mentality may make employees nervous, initially. After all, the now familiar BYOD movement has freed employees from the confines of their desktop applications and untethered them from their desk phones. It seems that organizations everywhere, large and small, have seen some level of BYOD filter into their businesses. Even the White House now has its own BYOD policy.

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