As government agencies look to make operations more efficient and easier on workers, they need big data solutions that will help them adapt to a higher rate of automated data processing and while upholding professionalism and maintaining security. The Department of Defense's (DoD) upcoming pilot program for BYOD may set an example for other government groups.
C4ISR & Networks reported on the pilot program, which will launch this summer and includes the use of "dual persona" phones that contain work and personal apps. The initiative has already led to more than 1,500 of these devices being brought into the Department with the ability to keep these different fields separate.
Though no specific date was given, the CIO of the DoD, Terry Halvorsen, referenced the limitations of such an effort in a recent press call quoted by the source.
"What I suspect what will happen with DoD, because of our size and all the businesses we're in, is there will be some places where BYOD is going to work and there's going to be places where it's not. I think it's going to be like cloud and everything else," he said. He added that because of the scope of the Pentagon, "there are not going to be easy clean answers."
The government has generally not capitalized on BYOD and other new internet-related trends to the degree that it could, as Kevin Desouza of the Brookings Institution writes. He says that the Department of Veterans Affairs is the only federal agency to seriously mention the promise of BYOD. This department is also planning on a BYOD policy of its own.
Developing a strong mainframe modernization plan helps participants improve their current BYOD rates by creating apps and web-based solutions specifically geared toward mobile use.