I’m glad someone finally pointed this out about the BYOD movement: Who Has Apples at Work? In Many Cases, It’s the Bosses (h/t Between the Lines)
From my long-past days in IT, I remember the added pressure of supporting executives, regardless of what they were carrying.
When it came to support, we jumped, e.g. I once was called to an offsite meeting to work on the COO’s non-standard Thinkpad; we used to support different printer configurations for execs and their admins; certain small laptops (now called ultrabooks) were only for high-level execs, etc.
From what I’ve seen, IT makes no bones about giving better support to execs. After all, these people can get you fired if you refuse to support this or that non-standard device, and similarly, they remember you later as a go-to person, which never hurts.
So yeah, BYOD is driven top-down; IT will sit up and take notice if the CEO is using an iPad exclusively, not only because it might break, but also because, it means every other exec will follow suit very quickly, if only for the cool factor. It might take 1,000 line managers to get the same level of attention.
What have you seen in your BYOD experience?
Find the comments.
In my observation, the Apple movement in the enterprise (often called BYOD or Consumerization), mirrors how RIM got Blackberries into larger firms. First, some forward-leaning techies bring it in and it is considered odd and/or a disruption to IT because it happens first in the middle layer of the company. When it goes wild is when the first senior manager or two jumps on the bandwagon. Then, all bets are off, because everyone wants the same advantages as their boss and wants to be seen as important (aka: I NEED a Blackberry). Once it goes “up,” IT can no longer ignore it or call it a distraction and has to act. RIM successfully wedged themselves in that way, and Apple just used their playbook (**irony**) to beat them right back out of the enterprise. Thing of beauty.
I’ll agree w everything but the Apple used their playbook (I hope that pun was intended). Apple doesn’t care about enterprise bc they won’t make design and usability compromises that IT usually demands. Apple remains a consumer-first company, which will frustrate IT to no end.
Depends on the group – and their location. In UX in the US everybody is using Apple – and some Android devices as personal work machines. And just look at the employee discounts for some of these brands. Say no more. But will we see servers replaced? Nah. Never.
BYOD doesn’t apply to servers 🙂 It’s still top-down, i.e. if a VP does it, that weighs more than if someone else does.
In my org, the vip’s ask the IT to build big gamer machines 😉 The Apples come in through the artist users, and some geek phones. I think the ubergeeks getting Android phones helped it all along, including that some servers are virtualized, and the Apples need to have vm windows for the erp clients. BYOD phones are outside the dmz, but yes, it was driven by a few execs. Oracle reputation got another black eye because it bought the server vm company they first used here (Virtual Iron), and ignored it to death.
Sounds pretty familiar, although I don’t recall anyone asking for a gaming machine. Back in the day, individual printers were the big luxury, off network so the admins and execs could print confidential stuff or at least not have to walk to the networked printers and wait in the queue.