3 things the boardroom needs to know about ITaaS

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While a separation of responsibilities is necessary to keep focus within an organization, it has a major downside: The boardroom is often left in the dark concerning IT issues. Executives should be taking an active role in tech maintenance and advancement within the company, and one of the great ways they can go about doing this is through IT-as-a-Service.

To that effect, let’s take a look at the top three things the boardroom should know about ITaaS:

“CIOs think their IT teams should be 58 percent bigger.”

1. Internal IT teams are often understaffed

The first – and perhaps most important – reason why the boardroom should consider ITaaS is the fact that many business IT departments are overworked. A study conducted by Robert Half Technology found that CIOs don’t think they have enough employees to effectively get the job done. In fact, the survey discovered that CIOs think their IT teams should be 58 percent bigger than they currently are.

While this makes for a stressful work environment, the real problem with this situation is the fact that stretching IT employees too thin can be dangerous for a company’s data health. PandaLabs, a cybersecurity research collective, observed and neutralized nearly 84 million unique pieces of malware in 2015 alone. That accounts for more than 27 percent of malware observations made by PandaLabs, which shows just how hard hackers are working to steal private information. Leaving something like malware removal to an already understaffed, overworked IT team is clearly just asking for trouble.

2. It helps to get fresh eyes on your network

Building a network for an organization is a very personal experience. IT workers pride themselves on creating a network from the ground up, but problems arise when these employees get too grounded in their routine and begin to overlook certain aspects. Working with a system for a long time allows blind spots to develop, and it’s often advantageous to have an outside professional come in and assess the situation.

A good example of this has to do with the security of company data. An IT administrator working with the local network might focus on educating employees about phishing scams or ensuring that all software is completely updated, but might miss the fact that users are accessing network data through unencrypted means. A network assessment from an outside MSP can help to plug these kinds of holes.

Having someone assess a network provides fresh eyes on it. Making sure a network is running as efficiently as possible is a major concern.

3. Implementing new policies demands refined expertise

As a rule, IT workers are highly skilled individuals. But, as the above examples show, sometimes they need a little help. This is especially true when implementing a new technology plan, such as a bring-your-own-device policy. With Forrester Research predicting that organizations the world over will be using 200 million BYOD smartphones in 2016, it’s clear this is an important trend.

Although BYOD has amazing benefits like reduced hardware costs, it certainly has its downsides. Compliance standards often have strict regulations regarding BYOD, as allowing employees to bring devices from home increases security concerns. Organizations looking to implement such a policy might not be able to foresee all the problems that need addressing, and therefore might increase the risks of a data breach or even downtime. Working with an ITaaS provider such as ISG Technology can mitigate these risks, helping to ensure a smooth BYOD rollout.

What happens when your employees can't get to work?

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There was a time when waking up after a massive snowstorm was a joyous occasion. You’d sit down to watch TV or listen to the radio, hoping to hear your school’s name on a list of those closed for the day. There really wasn’t anything better in the winter than a snow day.

Sadly, however, those days are long gone. There are a lot of perks to being an adult, but one of the drawbacks is that having an entire office stay home for a few days when the weather gets rough simply isn’t an option.

That being said, working from home poses a lot of challenges too. Aside from having to deal with kids loudly enjoying their snow day, remotely accessing business applications can be difficult.

Forcing employees to come in during a blizzard is reckless

Many more thoughtless employers believe the answer to this problem to be simply requiring employees to get to work regardless of the weather conditions. While maintaining business continuity is incredibly important to profits, at the end of the day your employees are really the only irreplaceable part of your operation. With the U.S. Department of Transportation having found that more than 31 percent of fatal weather-related car crashes happened due to snow and ice between 2004 and 2013, requiring people to come into work under such conditions could prove to be deadly.

Don't force your workers to come in on a snowy day. Driving in the snow is dangerous.

What’s more, getting to the office in a blizzard can actually be illegal. During winter storm Jonas in January 2016, New York City and Long Island were forced to ban traveling. This included trains and city mass transit, and also driving in the tunnels and onto bridges. So not only is forcing employees to come in during a massive snow storm incredibly heartless, it could be illegal.

Working from home is a start, but there’s a catch

All this being said, your business likely can’t just stop operations for a few days while a storm blows over. Your clients and partners demand continuity, which means employees will have to work from home when the snow falls heavily. Certain business applications are absolutely vital to your company’s work, and yet quite a few of these systems may not be able to be accessed while at home. They require employees to be in the office when utilizing them, severely cutting down on what your employees can do while at home.

While this is clearly a major problem for employees that rely on mission-critical applications to get their work done, there are other logistics to be considered when implementing a work-from-home initiative in the wake of a disaster. According to the Pew Research Center, 67 percent of Americans have a broadband connection at home. While that’s still a majority, it shows a massive hurdle many companies will have to overcome when trying to maintain business continuity after a disaster. A proportion of your employees may not have high-speed Internet at home, which means their ability to stay productive is going to severely drop.

“Employers need to have a plan in place.”

Proper planning is vital

What all this means is that employers need to have a plan in place for the eventuality of workers being snowed in. This includes having a lengthy discussion with employees about their home situations, including their ability to connect to the Internet if the need for them to work from home should arise.

It also means that cloud-based disaster recovery is an absolute must for those businesses operating in colder climates. Blizzards are a very real threat to business continuity, and not being able to access your applications in the event of such a disaster could be costly to your operations.

Consult with an ISG Technology disaster recovery professional today and save yourself the headache of an adult snow day.

Why should you invest in cloud-based UC?

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One of the most important aspects of conducting business is the ability to communicate easily, quickly and efficiently across the company and between partners. Promoting effective communication is critical to business operations, and the technology your employees use to conduct these communications – via messaging, email and voice – can make a real difference in the long run.

How do companies ensure in-house and external communication is as effective as it can be? Technology solutions can be utilized to fill the gaps where human interaction lacks. Email, phone and instant messaging are all key tools that companies can use to promote efficient, effective communication between teams and employees in general.

Therefore, investing in a unified communications strategy can be one of the most important decisions a CIO can make for his or her organization. Both on-premises and hosted UC tools offer a slew of advantages. For instance, implementing cloud-based UC solutions is a step in the right direction. In a 2015 survey of 451 IT executives, Harvard Business Review Analytic Services found that 72 percent of respondents view collaboration as a top advantage of cloud computing. This is a clear indication that the benefits of UC are enhanced by the fact that these tools exist in the cloud.

“Both on-premises and hosted UC tools offer a slew of advantages.”

Top benefits

There are several key advantages to utilizing a hosted UC solution. Here are only a few:

  • Mobility: In today’s business landscape, everything is going mobile. Bring-your-own-device policies have become a key aspect of the technology strategy of many organizations. In addition, the fact that these tools are powered by the cloud makes it easier to take them with you wherever you go. Need to answer an email on the run? Or conduct a conference call from the airport? No problems with hosted UC solutions.
  • Productivity: Because cloud-based UC allows for this enhanced mobility, workers can boost their productivity to new levels. Being able to collaborate during the commute and from home has been known to increase the amount of work employees can accomplish. A 2015 study conducted by Stanford researcher Nicholas Bloom found that call center employees who worked exclusively from home made 13.5 percent more phone calls than their office-bound counterparts, according to the Harvard Business Review.
  • Cost-effectiveness: Hosted solutions are cost-effective due to their cloud-based nature. Cloud computing itself has been proven to save organizations in both capital and operational expenses, and hosted UC is no different. Instead of having to invest in phone lines that won’t travel with your business if you have to move to a different office, outsourcing UC means you don’t have to pay extra to switch landlines.
Enhanced collaboration is possible with hosted UC solutions.Enhanced collaboration is possible with hosted UC solutions.

The coming year

As 2016 gets underway, industry analysts are hopeful about the future of UC. According to Information Age contributor Ben Rossi, organizations have the opportunity to gain better return on investment for their UC tools in the coming year. Once the challenges of security and utilization are surmounted, along with maintaining value and determining whether on-premises or hosted solutions are the best for a particular organization’s strategy, companies that adopt these kinds of tools will start to see real ROI.

Collaborate with ISG Technology today to gain the benefits from implementing cloud-based unified communications tools. We offer on-premises UC solutions, along with cloud-based tools made possible with our data center services.

ISG Technology: Who we are

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We’ve spent a lot of time on this blog discussing what ISG’s services can do for you, as well as what kinds of specific problems we can fix. We’ve even done an opinion piece here and there about current trends within IT. What we haven’t done so far is explain what kind of a company we are on a more personal level.

As a modern company, it’s really important to us that you not only understand what we do, but who we are. In an effort to fully introduce ourselves to you, we’d like to explain the three guiding principles that drive our company’s innovation each and every day: people, technology and service.

“People come first.”

People

When it comes to business, even the business of technology and machines, people come first. When we’re considering initiating a business relationship with a company, the first thing we do is try to fully understand the people who work there.

The reason we do this is simple: We can’t figure out how to fix your problem if we don’t know anything about who you are and what you need from us.

For the average managed services provider, solving an issue starts with what the MSP can do to fix the problem, followed by how the company is specifically going to solve it and finally finishing with why that particular situation was a problem in the first place. While this gets the job done most of the time, we at ISG think these companies have it backwards.

We begin our problem analysis by first figuring out why this obstacle is in your way. Starting here works better because it allows us to fully understand all aspects of your particular situation, without coming in with any preconceived notions. After this, we begin to work on how we’re going to fix the problem, followed by a full and detailed investigation into what the actual problem is.

What this means is that you can rest assured ISG will solve the problem you’re actually having, and not the one you think you’re experiencing. While you may think you need simple malware removal – something ISG could easily provide for you – it may turn out that you actually need comprehensive firewall protection services. By figuring out why a situation is a problem for you first, we can diagnose the root cause of your dilemma and provide a solution based on your company’s specific needs.

Technology

Technology is evolving at a truly remarkable rate. The Pew Research Center found that in 2015, about 68 percent of American adults owned a smartphone. In 2011, that number was closer to 35 percent. In four short years, smartphone usage had almost doubled, showing how fully technology has been integrated into our everyday lives.

Technology is everywhere, and with around 84 percent of your American clients identifying as Internet users, being on the forefront of this revolution is absolutely vital to stay profitable. That being said, keeping up with the latest and greatest in technological innovation is extremely hard when you’re trying to run a business.

To anyone working outside of IT, something like server virtualization can sound like magic. Just wrapping your head around the concept of fitting multiple, virtual machines on a single server can be impossible if you don’t understand the finely tuned technology behind it.

Thankfully, our team of highly trained tech wizards can make this magically complex technology simple and easy to comprehend. With ISG, you can rest assured that you’re getting the technology your business needs, from experts who truly understand it.

ISG tech experts are extremely knowledgeable. Our tech wizards can help bring the magic of modern technology to your business.

Service

Although you obviously want a cursory understanding of the technology you’re investing in, we know that you want IT solutions to just work. You don’t want your business goals to be hampered by constantly having to figure out what’s going wrong with the services provided to you, and as such, ISG has always been focused on providing a quality service to all of our clients.

Whether it’s disaster recovery services, or even online backup of your mission-critical data, we value giving the businesses we work with the best product we can. Investing in ISG is investing in consistency, and nothing is more important to us than making sure your IT problems get solved as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

If you’d like to learn how ISG can help bring your business to the next level, make sure to check out the list of managed services we offer on our homepage.





Join the ISG Technology Team




BYOD in schools: Advantages and disadvantages

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As highly advanced technology becomes more affordable, people are beginning to rely more on their own devices within the workplace. Using a smartphone or personal laptop for work purposes – a movement that’s been coined bring your own device – has been catching quite a lot of traction lately within the corporate world.

However, this trend isn’t just for businesses. Many people have suggested letting students utilize their own devices within the classroom as well. While this idea certainly has some good aspects to it, it also has some downsides. Here, we’d like to take some time here to discuss both so educators can have a fuller view of what a BYOD classroom would look like.

“The world is very quickly moving to a digital space.”

Advantages

Lower initial costs for schools
This is usually the first point of interest people like to focus on when discussing BYOD. The world is very quickly becoming ever more digital; as such, organizations need specific hardware in order to connect in an efficient and effective manner. This is just as true within schools as it is in the business world, as educators must make sure the next generation is prepared for the technologically advanced society that awaits them.

Gone are the days of classes in cursive, as they have given way to typing and coding courses. As such, many schools are struggling to stay current with the technology contained within their facility. With budgets being as tight as ever in most education environments, it makes a lot of sense to just let the kids bring their own devices.

The Pew Research Center stated that 58 percent of American teens had a tablet, while 73 percent of them personally owned a smartphone. These students could very easily bring their devices into the classroom, thereby increasing the number of usable machines while still keeping budgets low.

Students get to learn with familiar tech
A huge part of the educational process is connecting new knowledge with the old. It’s why students who are just learning how to write are asked to talk about their summer vacations and what they want for their birthday. It makes the process personal, and it is yet another big advantage to BYOD in schools.

When students use their own devices in school, they skip over that awkward part of class where they have to learn how to use the tech first before actually getting to the lesson. This not only wastes time, but it causes confusion that often is disruptive to the learning process. BYOD would allow teachers more time to discuss the actual lesson plan, while also increasing the receptiveness of the students.

BYOD promotes receptiveness in students. Students can learn more if they use their own devices.

Disadvantages

Disparaging to lower-income students
While BYOD is great for schools in more affluent areas, many regions of the country simply are not ready for it. Poorer students won’t have ready access to these devices, and forcing them to buy technology they can’t afford in the first place just to participate in the classroom simply isn’t an option.

While lower-income areas absolutely need technology-based learning within the classroom, doing so with a BYOD policy won’t work. Schools that work in these kinds of regions need to be aware of the financial situation of its student body and should therefore avoid implementing BYOD.

Can students be trusted with cybersecurity?
Poverty might be one of the most obvious of detractors from a BYOD policy, but the most poignant reason this trend might not work for your school is that teens are not exactly the most reliable in terms of policing their online habits. It’s not their fault, rather some teens simply don’t know how to avoid certain scams while using the Internet.

“16 million mobile devices suffered a malware attack in 2014.”

That being said, security is something to consider when thinking about a BYOD policy for your school. Motive Security Labs discovered that around 16 million mobile devices suffered a malware attack in 2014. Hackers are working constantly to access information stored on mobile tech, and allowing your students to use these devices for classwork could open your school up to a host of cyberattacks

Basically, school administrators need to come up with a system for making sure students don’t invite cybercriminals into their network. This could be the banning of certain high-risk websites, or even only allowing devices within the school to connect to a specific number of safe sites. Either way, it would be a mistake to allow students to govern themselves within a BYOD policy.

The verdict

When it comes to BYOD in schools, it really all depends on the facility itself and the people working within it. Enacting this kind of policy in a school is a lot easier said than done. There are a lot of variables to consider, and missing one tiny detail could result in a massive cyberattack that could cause a lot of damage to your facility’s reputation. That being said, there are also a lot of benefits to letting kids use their own devices. The monetary advantages are obvious, and teens are a lot more receptive to a lesson if they’re allowed to complete it using their own tech.

At the end of the day, it all just depends on what kind of school you run. If you have the time to police online activity and have a student body with a lot of personal devices, BYOD can do quite a lot for your school. If not, this trend might not be right for you and your students. BYOD is a fantastic move in the right direction for many corporate institutions, but implementing it within the educational space is going to take some time.

If you do plan on enacting a BYOD policy, you’re going to need some help. The cybersecurity aspect of this trend especially calls for professional experience, as your school’s private data is incredibly sensitive. Thankfully, ISG Technology can help you work out the kinks of a new BYOD policy. With years of experience helping people integrate BYOD into the workplace, ISG Technology can help bring your classrooms into the 21st century.

The ins and outs of mobile tech: What does it mean for you?

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If you ask tech-industry experts what they think has been the most disruptive technology of the last couple of years, you’ll get a few different answers. Some will say cloud computing, and others will say virtual infrastructure. Quite a few, however, will simply say one word: mobile. Smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and the Internet of Things are all examples of mobile technologies that have changed the way enterprises, medium-sized companies and small outfits alike operate within the business world. Recent numbers from The Pew Research Center indicated that 68 percent of American adults own a smartphone, and that statistic is only going to increase as 2016 progresses. It seems that everything we do is now tied up in mobile or has a mobile component – including everything in the business world.

Why is mobile so important to the way we do business now? Let’s take a look at how this disruptive technology has had such an irreversible influence on how companies approach their IT infrastructure:

1. Business and consumer tools

Computing on the go has never been more important for our fast-paced society. Research is being done every day exploring the efficacy of these kinds of tools for consumers and companies alike. For instance, according to a new study from research firm Sequence, consumers are using their devices to make wish lists and spend time with family this holiday season. If given the chance, the study found, one-third of them would use the time saved by mobile shopping to stay in bed longer.

This is a fun example of how mobile tech has changed the way we look at things, but enterprises and SMBs are also benefiting more from devices like laptops and smartphones. Business can be conducted on the fly thanks to these kinds of devices – leading to an increase in productivity and improved outcomes throughout the business world. Bring-your-own-device policies are helping companies save money in overhead and operational expenses while at the same time giving employees the means to be more productive and more efficient.

Myriad kinds of mobile devices can be used to impact office productivity.Myriad kinds of mobile devices can be used to impact office productivity.

2. Security

As mobile devices have evolved to meet the growing needs of enterprises in every industry, so too has the technological landscape developed in order to accommodate their increasing use. BYOD is even one of the driving forces behind the endpoint security market, according to a recent report published by MarketsandMarkets. The endpoint security market is projected to be worth $17.4 billion by 2020, growing at a compound annual rate of 8.4 percent over the next five years.

This market is growing proportionately with the number of malware samples discovered every day by security teams around the world. Motive Security Labs found that 16 million mobile devices were targeted by malware in 2014. To negate these kinds of threats, it’s crucial for companies to make – and stick to – a BYOD security strategy.

This strengthening of the security space is a clear indication that the need to mitigate risks has been compounded by the introduction of mobile technologies into the workplace. When unknown employee devices are connected to the network, it can sometimes cause headaches for the IT department in the form of shadow IT. Networks sometimes aren’t prepared for the intrusion of different kinds of tech, which means there may be hidden vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited.

“Improvements in terms of productivity, efficiency and expense-cutting are well worth the risks.”

3. The good parts about shadow IT

However risky it may be to allow mobile tech on your network, the benefits can outweigh the disadvantages if you play your cards right. Shadow IT has gotten a bad rap (understandably) in recent years, but improvements in terms of productivity, efficiency and expense-cutting are well worth the risks. In addition, according to CMS Wire contributor Joanna Schloss, shadow IT can lead to the adoption of new technologies that work hand-in-hand with mobile tech. This in turn helps companies see better return on investment from these tools.

Navigating the ever-changing mobile tech landscape can seem daunting when you undertake this task by yourself. Partnering with a managed services provider like ISG Technology gives you access to trained professionals who know what they’re talking about when it comes to new devices and how to best use them to your advantage. We can also help you determine the best course of action in terms of increasing your security protocols and taking charge of your computing infrastructure.

Contact the experts at ISG Technology today for more information!

Enterprise cloud computing vs. virtualization: When should you invest?

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As companies grow, their technology needs expand with them. Decision-makers have their work cut out when it’s time to choose new IT solutions, and where and how to store your data is one of the biggest considerations an IT executive must make.

Consolidating servers using virtualization technology and migrating data and applications to the cloud are both options for companies to take advantage of as they increase their computing power and need to improve functionality. But, how do you know which option is the correct one for your specific business needs?

Managing your own virtualized infrastructure

Server virtualization has been touted for its usefulness in consolidating IT environments and making computing portfolios easier to manage. According to a study published by TechNavio in October 2014, the market for server virtualization and related services was projected to grow at a compound annual rate of around 28.1 percent over the forecast period from 2014 to 2018, indicating a clear demand for these kinds of capabilities.

When should you consider server virtualization? In the data center environment, consolidating servers into fewer pieces of physical equipment elicits a number of benefits. TechRepublic named reduced hardware cost, fewer hot spots and streamlined data backups as top advantages of deploying virtual machines in the data center. When you’re managing your own VMs, you also have the distinct benefit of not being locked in to a specific vendor, which is one potential issue with the cloud.

Virtualizing your IT infrastructure can be an important way to consolidate servers and cut costs.Virtualizing your IT infrastructure can be an important way to consolidate servers and cut costs.

When should you outsource to the cloud?

TechTarget noted that enterprise cloud computing can help companies lower operational expenses and further enhance collaboration with business partners. Indeed, Verizon’s recent 2016 State of the Market: Enterprise Cloud report found that 88 percent of IT executives surveyed said the cloud improves responsiveness to business needs, and 65 percent of respondents said it gives a boost to operations in general.

“The cloud improves responsiveness to business needs.”

Cloud storage services negate the need for you to operate your own server room to house all of your company’s data. By outsourcing this function to a cloud provider, it potentially frees up your IT team for other important tasks and can thus enhance the level of productivity in your tech department.

No matter which computing solution you choose, you should consult IT professionals before deploying your environments. Contact the cloud and virtualization experts at ISG Technology for more information about how we can pair you with the correct cloud solution for your specific business needs.

3 tips for increased BYOD security

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The benefits of allowing employees to bring their own devices to work are pretty clear. A study conducted by Pew Research Center earlier this year found that 64 percent of American adults own a smartphone, which means a vast majority of the workforce already has the hardware your company needs to conduct business. This means less of a financial burden on you company for hardware procurement, while also allowing employees to use the devices they know and love.

But there is a dark side to BYOD.

The reason many workplaces are hesitant to fall in line with the BYOD revolution is the security risks it typically entails. Allowing people to blend their home life and work life in a single device can be dangerous. However, by following basic security protocols, BYOD can be a viable option. 

To that end, we've compiled this list of three security tips to make sure your company benefits from all BYOD has to offer without falling victim to the security risks:

1. Have a well-defined list of do's and don'ts: Any company even remotely considering enacting a BYOD policy needs to sit down and have a long discussion about the definition of acceptable behavior on a personal device used for work purposes. Employees will be used to doing as they please on their own devices, which is perfectly fine when these devices don't have company data on them.

The problems begin to arise when employees forget the importance of the work information stored on their devices. If given the opportunity to work from their own devices, employees will invariably make some bad decisions in terms of data security. All it takes is a worker clicking one wrong link to put all of your company's data at risk. It's vital that employees recognize the importance of proper device usage, and it's why they should also be included in the creation of this list of rules. 

2. Mandate proper device security: This tip sounds like it should just be a part of the first, or even something that should be left to common sense. Sadly, quite a lot of Americans simply don't value the security of their devices. A study conducted by Consumer Reports last year found that around 34 percent of Americans take no security measures whatsoever to keep their phone safe.

This means that more than a third of your employees don't even use a password to protect their own data, a troubling statistic if you're attempting to implement a BYOD policy. When sitting down with employees to talk about the list of do's and don'ts, you'll need to have a separate discussion concerning safety practices such as setting up a complex password to gain access to the device. 

3. Prepare for the eventuality of lost device: Notice that this tip doesn't say "Prepare for the possibility of a lost device." This is because if you intend to cash in on all of the benefits of a BYOD policy, you're going to have to accept the risk that one of your employees will eventually lose a device with work information on it. The same Consumer Reports study found that in 2013 alone, 4.5 million devices were either lost or stolen.

But don't let this statistic get you down about the advantages of BYOD. Your company can absolutely benefit from not having to constantly upgrade hardware, as long as you take the necessary precautions. This is why anyone wishing to implement a BYOD policy should contact the experts at ISG Technology. Not only can they help you set up your list of do's and don'ts, they can also help protect your company data through device encryption, taking the headache out of employees losing hardware or not taking the proper precautions. 

Unified Communications market expected to rise

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Staying connected has always been a huge part of conducting business. However, as technology becomes more advanced, new and more complex avenues of communication will begin to play a larger role in the average day-to-day operation of many companies. 

It is this increase in communication complexity that is giving rise to something called Unified Communications as a Service. Basically, UCaaS ties together multiple modes of conversation under a singular software umbrella to simplify a company's communication needs. Considering the wide variety of ways people talk to each other, ranging from voice calls to instant messaging systems, putting all forms under a single platform has many benefits. 

These benefits work toward cutting both cost and confusion in communication, and have a major role in Transparency Market Research finding that the global UCaaS market is expected to be worth $37.85 billion by 2022. During the forecast period of 2014 and 2022, this equals out to the market rising at a compound annual growth rate of 24.4 percent. 

Communication is vital
Considering how important passing information from one employee to the next is within a business, this massive growth within the UCaaS industry is hardly surprising. Communication is a quickly evolving field, and keeping up with it all can be quite the hassle. 

In fact, one of the main drivers behind UCaaS's projected growth comes from the Internet of Things revolution. This trend of connecting random devices, such as a refrigerator that orders food online when you're running low, poses many concerns in how communication will evolve in the coming years. 

Market research company Frost & Sullivan marked the importance of the IoT revolution in terms of the UCaaS market in a February 2015 report on the matter. The firm expects there to be as many as 80 billion connected devices by 2020. Frost & Sullivan project this will cause major problems with the average business's ability to manage its communication needs, due to the unprecedented number of devices that will be able to talk to each other very soon.

This fact, coupled with the growing BYOD trend many companies seem to find themselves a part of, shows that businesses may need to take a deeper look at their communication needs. With BYOD's popularity comes the problem of securing all the modes of communication employees bring to the office. 

And while this brave new world of treating communications as managed services may be confusing for some companies, thankfully ISG Technology is here to make things easy. ISG Technology can help make investing in UCaaS painless and cost-effective. 

What to know about letting employees bring devices from home

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The bring-your-own-device movement has been getting serious traction lately, as the amount of technology owned by employees continues to go up. Whether it be their personal phone, tablet or even laptop, people really seem to like the idea of having their own tech at work. And this recent BYOD trend doesn't seem to be slowing down. In fact, research firm Gartner said approximately 70 percent of mobile workers will be using their own smart devices rather than those given to them by their company by 2018. With those kinds of numbers, it's no wonder that many companies are gearing up for the BYOD revolution. 

BYOD: The risks and rewards
Just like every trend, there are positives and negatives to letting employees bring their own electronics to work. The simplest and perhaps the most obvious of the positives is that people like their own devices. Employees don't just grab the first phone or computer that catches their eye. They take enormous amounts of time and energy to figure out what device is right for them. There is a multitude of things a device can offer someone, and allowing employees to tailor their work devices to their own wants and needs is certainly a benefit to both productivity and employee morale. 

Another positive point to consider with BYOD is the fact that employees upgrade their own devices at a much more rapid pace than their employers. According to eMarketer, about 54 percent of smartphone users plan to buy a new device within the next 12 months. Any company attempting to keep their own hardware this current would most certainly run itself into the ground. It's best to let employees worry about having the most current device.

Despite the many positives to BYOD, there are also some risks every company should consider. The biggest problem a company implementing a BYOD plan is likely to run into is the fact that it is extremely hard to tell employees what they can and can't do with their own devices. People get used to surfing the Web on their personal laptops, and while this is fine if the device is strictly for personal use, it becomes a problem when the device is brought into the office. It's very easy to tell an employee what they can and can't do with company-owned property, but it becomes a little harder when the employees own those devices. Any company considering BYOD should express these concerns with employees if they wish to keep productivity at peak levels. 

Aside from productivity, there is also a sizeable security risk from employees using BYOD hardware like they would at home. Something as simple as an employee downloading apps on their phone allows third-party access to company data. This is due to the relative simplicity of developing mobile viruses and can lead to the necessity of malware removal. Again, companies considering letting employees bring their own devices into work need to instruct these people in the correct use of devices. 

But companies shouldn't let the risks scare them away. With help from BYOD experts like ISG Technology, allowing employees to bring their own equipment can have a multitude of benefits without any downsides.