What Does Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Mean?
Bring your own device (BYOD) refers to employees who bring their own computing devices - such as smartphones, laptops and tablet PCs - to work with them and use them in addition to or instead of company-supplied devices. The prevalance of BYOD is growing as people increasingly own their own high-end mobile computing devices and become more attached to a particular type of device or mobile operating system. BYOD may occur under the radar, or become part of a specific corporate policy in which an organization agrees to support personal mobile devices or even provides a stipend to employees to purchase a device.
Bring your own device may also be referred to as bring your own technology (BYOT).
Techopedia Explains Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
BYOD is part of what's often called the consumerization of IT, wherein employees are becoming increasingly integrated with their mobile devices, and expect to be able to use them to connect to company networks. Because employees are now likely to use their own PCs and mobile devices for work-related tasks - whether their employer supports it or not - a BYOD policy designed to control the use of such devices is becoming increasingly important in terms of mitigating BYOD's risks.
BYOD is believed to boost productivity and employee morale, but it does pose some problems from a security standpoint. Because BYOD devices aren't strictly controlled by an organization, company information may not be as secure, increasing the risk of data breaches. Troubleshooting can also be a problem with BYOD, especially when employees are allowed to use a wide array of devices with different operating systems.