It was mostly the provocative title of this article at NetworkWorld.com http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/041712-byod-258264.html?hpg1=bn  about the Bring Your Own Device trend that got us thinking about how the mobile insurrection is affecting IT departments facing a data recovery emergency.

Network World and Solar Winds conducted a survey of 400 IT pros and discovered:

– The majority of survey respondents (close to 85 %) issue mobile devices that have access to the corporate network. These devices include laptops, tablets and smartphones on every major platform.

– Only 15.1% have a Bring Your Own Device policy, where employees’ smartphones and other mobile devices can access the corporate network (sometimes a stipend is offered to cover costs)

– Of the BYOD supporters, 59.3% have no device restrictions, but access to the networks is often limited to specific applications or virtual networks

Security Risks with Mobile Devices

As the article we mentioned earlier put it, “the inmates of the asylum have control.” Maybe your workplace isn’t reminiscent of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but permitting employees to access the network via their own mobile devices does open servers up to security risks, hackers, viruses, and the potential loss of mission critical data.

Again, protection against a data recovery emergency and dangerous downtime comes down to having the proper back-ups in place, testing them, and following back-up best practices at all times. 

Data Recovery and Mobile Devices

What happens when an employee using his own mobile device for work purposes suffers a data recovery emergency? Who’s responsible? 

When devices not supplied by the IT department fail, it may be out of the realm of the IT staff’s expertise to fix them and recover lost data. What if you’re a PC-based organization, and a top executive’s iPhone crashes? 

That’s just one more reason you need a data recovery partner, a company like 24 Hour Data, with expertise in recovering lost data from all types of hard drives and mobile devices, including iPhones, MacBooks, tablets running on the Windows or Android platforms, and laptops with any make and model hard drive. 

As more companies adopt the Bring-Your-Own-Device model to reduce costs and keep employees happy and productive, IT staffs of every size need to know they can count on a data recovery firm with unmatched success rates in recovering lost data from all mobile devices.