Bring your own software

Abstract

The term Consumerisation of IT (CoIT) has been buzzing for a while in the IT world. The best-known form of this trend is Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), a term even your mother has probably heard by now. The popularity of BYOD in the UK is not as clear as you might think. The researchers of Strategy Analytics saw a decrease of 15% in BYOD in Western Europe in the first quarter of 2013, compared to the first quarter of 2012.^1 The serious concerns of IT managers in this domain seem to have been heard by the company decision makers. But now that this threat seems to be declining, the next buzzword has made its appearance: Bring Your Own Software (BYOS). Is that also a dangerous trend? And what are the expected advantages of BYOS? The term Consumerisation of IT (CoIT) has been buzzing for a while in the IT world, with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) its best-known manifestation. Yet even as BYOD seems to be fading as a threat, Bring Your Own Software (BYOS) is raising its head as the next potentially dangerous trend. So what are the expected advantages of BYOS? And do they warrant the possible risks? Danielle van Leeuwen of G Data Software explains.