How to establish a successful BYOD policy for a software development company

The success of a BYOD program lies in cautious creation of a bring-your-own-device policies, but many companies are negligent to write them. BYOD trend is becoming the leading strategy for provisioning subscriber devices in most software development companies in India over the next few years. There are a lot of interesting strategies, products and services that make BYOD effective and easy for the companies. BYOD isn't a free-for-all, do-what-you-want condition. Cautious planning and end-to-end strategizing are required before a company purchases any systems for managing BYOD.

Here are some of the key factors to consider for establishing a successful BYOD policy:

The permissible devices

The devices used during the decade of Blackberry services were pretty clear (i.e. only the Blackberry phones were used for work). Now in the era of iPhone and android, this decision is not that easy. Make sure you specify the devices that are permitted in your corporate network. The version and model number of these devices should also be taken into consideration while selecting the devices. The device choices can be any of the following:

• Android phones
• iPhones
• Android tablets
• iPads
• Laptops
• Phablets (i.e. Phone + Tablets)
• Notebooks

Security of data and devices

There is a lot of confidential information in the mobile devices connected, and accessing the corporate network of your software development company. There is a need of strong password attached to devices of employees at all times. Many employees don’t even have a password or screen locks on their personal devices, because they see it as an interference to quick access, so this needs to be addressed to prevent security breaches. Other security factors include the use of antivirus apps, other security softwares and proper configuration of firewall in your BYOD policy.

Services for selected devices

It's important for employees to understand the helpdesk boundaries when questions or problems creep up with personal devices. To set these boundaries, you'll have to provide a solution for the following questions:

• How much support for initial connections by personally owned devices, to the corporate network will be available?
• If a device breaks, what support is assured from IT representatives of the software development company?
• Is there a provision of application support on devices owned by the employees?
• Will you limit Helpdesk to tickets addressing email, calendar and other personal information management-type applications only?
• Is your support basically a remove and reconfigure operation?
• Will you provide other devices on a temporary basis to employees while their phone or tablet is being serviced?

Permissible applications

You need to make a decision on what apps will be allowed or banned which is commonly referred to as whitelisting or blacklisting. A BYOD policy should explain that IT has the authority to prohibit the use of certain applications that might threaten the security or integrity of the data used in corporation. This applies to any device that will connect to your network, whether corporate or personal. The concern is whether users can download, install and use an app that presents security or legal risk on BYOD devices that access sensitive corporate information of a software development company. What if a poorly written instant chat messenger steals your organization's address book?

Alignment with acceptable use policy

Allowing personally owned devices to potentially connect to your VPN introduces concern regarding what activities may and may not be permitted. Some of the points that require discussion are:

• If you set up a VPN tunnel on a mobile device and then your employees post to social networking, is this a violation?
• What if your employees browse objectionable websites while on their device's VPN?
• What if they transmit, either purposely or not, inappropriate material over your network, even though they're using a personally owned device? What authorizations are there for such activity?
• What monitoring approaches and tools are available for enforcement of such policies?

If you already have an acceptable use policy in place, integrate BYOD policy with it.

Employee Exit Plan

What happens when employees with devices on your BYOD platform leave the organization? How do you enforce the removal of access tokens, e-mail access, data and other proprietary applications and information? The consideration of how will the back up of user’s personal photos, apps, video, etc. will be performed before the mobile device is wiped, is of prime importance. Make a clear plan, document it and share this with the employees.

BYOD agreement

A written and properly implemented agreement between authorized users and the organization is essential. Companies should run any proposed policies by their legal advisories before drafting any agreements and putting them into practice. Laws vary significantly from authority to authority and from nation to nation.

Conclusion:  If you have not embraced BYOD yet, get ready, because its propagation will only continue to accelerate. With a strong BYOD policy, IT can sleep better at night knowing that they have governed their BYOD environment.

Common myths and truths about BDaaS

It’s exciting to see Big Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS) starting to take off. Numerous media outlets have covered the effect of this emerging trend on software outsourcing companies. While there is not yet a precise definition of BDaaS, common subjects are emerging and diverging. Here is a take on some of the truths on BDaaS:

All of the BDaaS service providers have slightly different capabilities

A host of services now uses the BDaaS signature. These services have both commonalities and key differences:

Most vendors are cloud-based, but with different architectures such as single-tenant and multi-tenant. These BDaaS vendors are promoted as a managed service with varying levels of management. Some are Hadoop based or other open-source software based. A few vendors include access to external or third-party datasets. A few have their own innovative visualization capabilities, but most of them support industry-standard tools.

Most BDaaS vendors essentially offer Big Data Analytics Processing-as-a-Service. This distinctive issue will persist, requiring that buyers be assiduous in their evaluations.

Currently, as a consequence of the Big Data trend, enterprises can turn to Big Data as a Service (BDaaS) solutions to bring the storage and processing together. Interestingly, a definition and classification of BDaaS is missing today and various types of services compete in the space with varied business models and foci.

Big Data-as-a-Service improves enterprise dexterity and competencies

With big data’s well-documented capability, an outsider might wonder why most software outsourcing companies don’t have programs to implement BDaaS yet. There are a lot of complex new technologies, legacy investments, many other IT priorities and a shortage of skills that is delaying this implementation. BDaaS removes many of these technical and skill blockades to data processing, so enterprises can focus on using data efficiently and be more flexible and adjustable to change. BDaaS enables smoothness, agility and compatibility. For instance, enterprises find it's relatively faster and easier to adapting changes at lower cost and efforts. Smoothness is the extent to which your BDaaS can be quickly and cost-effectively repurposed and reconfigured in response to changes in the constantly moving world.

Security, privacy and integration are key issues for BDaaS

While many software outsourcing companies in India have developed skills and competencies to manage these worrying data challenges on-premises, the cloud is an altogether different environment. Organizations still find it difficult to understand this new paradigm, and integrate it with substantial legacy investments. BDaaS providers, many of which are digital groups and software companies, often have different approaches on issues like security and integration, requiring careful inspection.

Implementation challenges can arise from lack of preparation, crisis in expertise and compromised data security, all of which will have to be taken care of in the future management of BDaaS technology.

Here are some common myths on BDaaS:

Hadoop as a Service = Big Data as a Service

Big data is not only about Hadoop. While earlier definitions often closelycharacterized big data as newer formats like semi-structured data (sensor data,logs etc.), in common use, big data is often used for “all the kinds of data a company has to deal with.” (TechTarget, 2016)survey provides a meaningful insights on format of database organizations consider “big data”:

79% include structured i.e. organized data (e.g. customer records and transactions)
59% include semi-structured i.e. semi organized data (log, clickstream,sensor, social)
52% include unstructured i.e. unorganized data (videos, audio, images)

Add to this there are lot of analytic processing requirements for different data jobs in a company(real-time, batch and advanced), and clearly Hadoop is not the suitable engine for every big data job. That’s why visionary BDaaS providers offer multiple processing engines (Hadoop, MPP SQL and Spark) to address the full range of data and analytical needs.

Big Data-as-a-Service threatens Information Technology

BDaaS is poised to help IT leaders and enterprises, empowering them to quickly offer big data capabilities within the scope of existing data and governance programs. Instead of stickingto Hadoop for six months, IT can source BDaaS that meets companywide requirements and then reallocate crucial resources to help the business analyze data more effectively. IT can rapidly implement BDaaS in days or weeks, enabling their organization with extraordinary data access, infinite scale and new agile data analytics capabilities.

Conclusion

The term ‘Big Data as a Service’ may be rather inelegant and clumsy but the concept is not. As more and more software outsourcing companies in India realize the value of implementing Big Data strategies, more services will emerge to support them as well. Data analysis brings positive change to any organization that takes it earnestly, and this includes smaller or larger scale operations which neither have the expertise nor the budget nor time to develop that expertise to do it themselves.

Bibliography

TechTarget. (2016). TechTarget Big Data Analytics .

Benefits of BYOD in the classroom

Today’s generation of students is different from previous generations. They keep their mobile devices on them eternally and expect connectivity all the time. Therefore, as our culture continues to become more and more gadget dependent, BYOD in schools (bring your own device) becomes BYOD in education and it is inevitable. There is going to be a wave of devices arriving at the school wireless network, whether software companies in India like it or not. The times is changing and education and softwares developed by software development companies must change with it.

Here are some benefits of implementing BYOD in classroom:

1) Workforce ready students

The world today’s student’s upbringing is becoming increasingly tech-addicted. We use our mobile devices all the time for just every task we do these days. Today’s students will likely be using mobile devices in their future vocations, so why not in still them with the tools they will be working with in the future.  It provides a chance for teaching courteous/appropriate use of mobile devices which they will be using when they grow up to become future professionals. The whole point of education is to prepare them for their future.

2) Teamwork becomes easier

With BYOD technology in the classroom, students can easily team up on projects and even with students from other schools. Group effort is the key to engagement in today’s classrooms.

3) Learning outside the school walls

Students spend many hours outside the school on their mobile devices. So why not use it as an advantage. Let them use these devices as engaging learning tools in the classroom. Then, they can simply bring their homework, educational games, projects, books, etc. and everything they need to continue learning outside the school can be accessed with a swipe of the finger.

4) Personalised instruction

BYOD provides a chance for personalised education. Teachers can use media to cater to the different learning needs of the students. Then all students can learn and shine at their own pace.

5) Cost Saving

Although BYOD is really about delivering education in innovative ways, saving money isn’t a bad objective to have additionally. With the students using their own mobile devices as classroom technology, schools can save some serious money on technology costs. Schools nowadays spend a fortune trying to keep up with all the latest and updated technology that can be used for education these days. So let students bring in their latest technology in the classroom and remove that burden from schools.

6) Gamification

It’s an old saying that ’Video games make children dumb’,  but apparently there are all sorts of new games these days that parents and teachers actually inspire video game playing. There’s an app and a game for everything these days that makes learning a funny and exciting experience.

7) Education becomes more interactive

BYOD allows student to use their own devices in the classroom to make learning more fun and interactive than ever before. Students can interact with students and subject matter experts in other countries, create a digital scavenger hunt or take virtual field trips. Hence, the possibilities are endless and students love it.

8) Increased Engagement

Students these days live for technology. So it only makes sense to use their love for technology in the classroom if we really want to get them engaged.

9) Student and Teacher exchange the roles

BYOD changes the entire learning and teaching model. With the technology they are using for BYOD, students can have more command over their own learning. They can raise questions and do research instead of just listening to a lecture from the teacher.

10) eBooks

In the real world, things and information are constantly changing. Till the time most textbooks reach the classroom, the information contained in them is considered outdated. BYOD allows students’ access to the latest and updated information available through ebooks/digital textbooks. Many digital textbooks also offer interactive aspects as well.  Also, students can easily carry them around and access them whenever they want.

Conclusion
By acknowledging that smartphones, tablets, and laptops are realistic components in the lives of every human being and by accepting it openly and actively in the exploratory use of these tools for education, we are opening the door for our students that leads to the core of the 21st century experience. Software development companies should consider this view while developing new generation softwares.