You love your technology. In fact, it’s with you more often than your spouse – and may actually know you better, given both Android's and Siri’s propensity to find you/follow you/anticipate your next move.

You’re committed to your platform, in part because it has made you more productive. But start a new job, and you’re likely to find that they use a different platform, and you’re stuck learning a new skillset just to get started.

A movement to allow you to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to work began in 2009, and despite significant push-back from corporate IT departments, it has continued to grow. If the data included in recent reports from analyst firm Ovum are true, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is “here to stay.” The reports note that nearly 70 percent of employees use their tablets or phones to access corporate data. Of those, 15 percent do so without IT’s knowledge, and nearly 21 percent do so in spite of corporate policies against it.

Sixteen years later, many companies actually expect you to bring your own device. It allows them to get you hired and on-boarded quickly and at less expense, and you get plugged in and productive significantly faster. So why is there push-back from IT?

It’s primarily been about two things: security and support.

Security risks have focused on how quickly a breach on a personal device spreads throughout the organization. And concern about supporting so many makes, models, operating systems and versions makes the technician blanch.

The fact is, many departments have been skirting around IT for years. There just isn’t enough budget or time available in the IT department to manage all the requirements that each department has. A recent Gartner Group piece suggested that business has evolved to the point where every budget is now an IT budget. Departments are buying their own devices, services and support for key technologies that help them succeed, and buying them from their own budgets.

With new security endeavors and a move to infrastructure as a service, an IT policy where employees are encouraged to use their personal devices can actually be embraced. BYOD can work smoothly when employees use a private cloud (or a Citrix system) to connect devices to the workplace. Since employees are more comfortable with using their personal devices, they are productive, and because these personal devices tend to be more cutting-edge, both employee and company reap the benefits.

Cloud computing – and specifically the implementation of virtual desktops (also known as hosted desktops) – enable a company to connect different users and departments easily, making information accessible through any computer, any device. Brainstorming and ideas flow quickly between different departments and productivity increases are easily measured.

One of the additional values of having your infrastructure in the cloud is that when an employee inevitably breaks a device, he or she can get back to work by simply buying a new one and connecting to the cloud for all key data.

Of course, your technology vendor should be consulted to be sure you’ve enabled a multi-level security approach. But BYOD can now mean you’ve gone BeYond Outright Disaster, knowing that each piece of your technology chain is secured, but also replaceable.

Shaun Olsen is the CEO and President of CloudWyze. CloudWyze was created to help businesses focus and perform at their optimal level by crafting and executing custom technology plans for businesses of every type and size. To learn more about CloudWyze, visit www.CloudWyze.com. Shaun can be reached at [email protected] or 910-795-1000.