Bring your own device policies have increasingly become entrenched in companies of all sizes, as the benefits to productivity have become apparent to business leaders. While much has been said of the virtues of BYOD, existing data and new forecasts from Grand View Research shows just how much – and how quickly – the market for BYOD is expected to grow.
In April 2014, Grand View released the results of a study that showed that the total global BYOD market size in 2013 was $75.33 billion. Smartphones comprised the bulk of this total, which the researchers attributed to the fact that developers had made great progress on adapting key tools like Microsoft Office for mobile phone use.
A new study from the same research firm released in December 2015 gives a better picture of where the global BYOD market is headed. It predicted that by 2020, the global market for BYOD would reach a total size of $238.39 billion. The continued proliferation of smartphones and tablets and the fact that most employees today expect to be able to use their personal devices for work are key drivers of this growth.
Of course, implementing a BYOD policy does not come without its challenges. Grand View noted that cybersecurity concerns are always at the forefront of any BYOD workplace. Additionally, ensuring that new devices are compatible with older mainframes and legacy applications can hamper the effectiveness of such strategies.
One way in which new devices can easily interact with existing systems is through a mature and reliable Web-based mainframe terminal emulator. Using HTML, CSS and Javascript instead of Java or ActiveX, these emulators allow users to easily and securely access workflows and data through mobile devices.
Giving employees the ability to work from wherever and whenever they want in a safe, secure environment is crucial for unlocking the productivity-enhancing potential of BYOD while mitigating common security issues.