Is Your Client In The Wearables Ecosystem Thinking About A WYOD Policy?

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

In the article, “How’s Your Enterprise Wearables Strategy?” Information Week predicts that “the Apple Watch release in early 2015 will set the stage for wider enterprise adoption of wearables.” With the approach of universal use of wearables, the issue of how to regulate and track them is a rising concern for companies and provides a golden opportunity for VARs. According to J.P. Gownder, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, there are three wearables cases: company-owned scenarios, where organizations provide the tools with which work is done in new ways; employee-owned wearables, which will provoke adjustments in BYOD policies to include WYOD policies as well; and customer-owned wearables, which will prompt businesses to design and support infrastructure that can complete customer transactions via wearables.

Gownder writes, “The wearables ecosystem will be built not by tech vendors alone, but by banks, retailers, hotels, hospitals, and brands.” VARs can create solutions and services in expectation of this technological trend to help their clients gain an advantage in the manufacturing sector.

According to Channelnomics, Ipswitch has highlighted security issues surrounding the predicted WYOD avalanche in the workplace, stating that the network provider has claimed the WYOD trend “will arrive at end-user organizations sooner than they think, and insisted channel firms should act fast to get ahead of the game.”

Channelnomics also reported that in the first half of 2014, analyst Canalys found that the wearable band market expanded by 684 percent over a year ago. They also predicted that the new Apple Watch will dominate the market in 2015.

The WYOD expansion also has the potential to create new security risks for businesses. Employees who adopt the wearables “are going to demand that they are able to bring their devices into the workplace and that's where the trouble is. BYOD was about laptops and phones, but wearables are much more discreet and small and can be stolen and lost a lot more easily” Ipswitch’s Stephen Demianyk told Channelnomics.

“C-level execs agree to policies (such as WYOD) but probably don't understand the potential problems they could have. For example, data security, leakages and privacy issues too," he points out.

As these new wearables throw monkey wrenches into existing infrastructures and security measures, Demianyk says, “Consultants can go in and see the bigger picture and (answer) wider-reaching questions and can help with educating organizations.”