We have all heard about the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon in which employees bring their own computing devices to their work, such as their laptops, tablets or even smartphones to complete their job tasks more conveniently. Now Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) is arising and reshaping the world of IT management.
Bring your own cloud is a concept about employees being allowed to use public or private third-party cloud services to perform certain job roles, according to techopedia. Many of the services are web based and cross-platform with Dropbox being probably the most famous among them. Other popular personal cloud services are iCloud, Google Drive and SkyDrive. Additionally, these private cloud services are free to use under a certain storage limit, usually between 2 and 5 GB which is enough for storing emails, documents and other raw data.
Therefore, these BYOC services offer an efficient option for storing files off-device for greater protection, automatic backup and constant availability. However, at the same time they provide an avenue for corporate users to compromise security by storing important data outside the company’s secure barriers. The concern here is not about the Bring Your Own Cloud trend taking over the Bring Your Own Device. The real question is:
How securely can the two concepts coexist in a corporate environment, where you cannot really stop users from using private cloud services when they bring their own devices?
Doriana Kote, Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Finalist for 2013