BYOD, the Cloud, and CASB, the best combination since PB&J

BYOD is defined by Google as the practice of allowing employees of an organization to use their own personal devices for work purposes. This includes mobile phones, laptops, and tablets. Given the sharp increase in the number of companies taking advantage of all that BYOD offers, several similar acronyms have developed, such as BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology), and CYOD (Choose Your Own Device). The variety of terms alone mirrors the level of importance to which these practices have ascended.

BYOD Policies

Organizations in every sector are adopting BYOD policies for their workforce and realizing incredible benefits. Perhaps the most prevalent advantage of BYOD is cost-related. By avoiding the expenses of having to purchase devices and network plans, enterprises that allow employees to use their own personal mobile devices for work typically achieve cost savings. The company also averts the cost of having to repair devices. Instead, IT is free to focus on other tasks.

Most employees generally want to use their own personal mobile devices for work. Numerous studies have revealed that workers (especially younger ones) believe that their personal devices are more effective. Employees tend to be more comfortable with their own devices, as opposed to learning how to use new one, and they are more productive. These workers are also more likely to access enterprise apps after hours. With workers more satisfied, because they get to use their devices, companies can decrease turnover.

There are some significant advantages to BYOD:

1. Reduced costs
2. Increased employee satisfaction and productivity
3. Increased flexibility

CASB – Cloud Access Security Broker

One of the most obvious downsides is security. This is where the concept of CASB comes in. Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs) have emerged in recent years as a data-centric solution for securing apps end-to-end, from on private and public cloud to the user’s device. By intermediating or “proxying” traffic between cloud apps and end-user devices, CASBs offer IT administrators an agentless, granular access control and deep visibility over corporate data – critical functionality for organizations moving from internal, premises-based apps to the cloud.

Data must be protected at rest in the cloud, at rest on mobile devices, and in transit – making cloud and mobile inseparable components of a complete security solution. The CASB data-centric approach to security ensures that corporate information stays protected on any device, anywhere.

Data leaving the corporate network and heading to high-risk destinations is a major concern for enterprises. High-risk destinations take many forms – malware command and control sites, anonymizers like Tor, “shadow IT” cloud applications, and more. Each of these destinations represents a risk of sensitive data exfiltration and must be identified in a timely fashion. CASBs offer discovery services that analyze proxy or firewall data to identify vulnerable traffic between the network and high-risk destinations. Destinations associated with known malicious activity can be identified in order to remediate high-risk endpoints and users.

Ultimately, with cloud and BYOD becoming a workplace expectation, IT must be able to secure corporate data no matter where it resides. Focusing on securing data that resides in the network is no longer enough, and the traditional technologies used to do this will inevitably make way for a new generation of data security solutions.

Author Bio: Joe Goldberg is the Senior Cloud Program manager at CCSI. Over the past 15+ years, Joe has helped companies to design, build out, and optimize their network and data center infrastructure. As a result of his efforts, major gains in ROI have been realized through virtualization, WAN implementation, core network redesigns, and the adoption of cloud services. Joe is also ITIL certified.