| | May 20158CIOReviewFather's DayI still remember the day like it was yesterday: the day after Father's Day 2011. It started off as any other Monday in IT with the usual calls to help with a forgotten password or the "I can't get logged in" call to our support center. But this day, there was a new frequent request: "I got an iPad 2 for Father's Day. Can I connect it to our network and get my calendar and email?" Seemed like a simple enough request -- and even simpler to answer: NO! We don't allow personal devices on our network! By Thanksgiving we were underwater with tablet and smartphone access requests and with Christmas coming we knew we had to get ahead of the Tsunami. Now it's 2015, and we have learned so much about BYOD, or "Bring your own device." We still say NO! Well, sort of ...We didn't always say no. First, no one was doing BYOD back then. We had email on our Blackberries and a few had personal BBs that were on our Blackberry Enterprise Server. But with smarter devices and proliferation imminent, potential legal, risk and security concerns needed to be resolved. There had not been any reported corporate losses or notable security breaches. But we didn't want to be the trailblazers on BYOD ­ and those were reason enough.Still, employees clamored for the perceived personal productivity benefit and presumed this whole "consumerization" thing would make it a benefit to the business, too. After all, it allowed anyone to bring in anything they wanted, and the company would get out of buying phones and laptops. "Just give them a stipend," shared one SVP. "Now I can get on the same cell provider as my family plan," shared others. Sweet, right? Not necessarily!Risk / RewardOur risk and security teams began to offer up opinions. "We can't allow those ANDROIDs in here. They don't offer the security level we demand." Our outsourcing providers began grumbling, "How can we offer an SLA on a non-standard computer or Apps?" They threatened to increase the price or, worse, deny service. Our colleagues in the technology world were all BYOD-ISHBy Gerry Mecca, VP-IT and Mobility Innovation, Dr Pepper Snapple Group Gerry Meccaopinionin my
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