You are invited to a BYOD party

August 14, 2014
 
Dan Katcher

With the phone market only growing, the 2014 corporate world is making room. At home, the use of devices has also taken off: 90 percent of American adults have a cell phone and 42 percent own a tablet computer.
When working from home and even just in daily living, all of these devices come in handy. And because people become accustomed to the way that their device works, many companies are implementing BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies. Gartner.com defines the BYOD strategy: “[It] allows employees, business partners and other users to use a personally selected and purchased client device to execute enterprise applications and access data. It typically spans smartphones and tablets, but the strategy may also be used for PCs. It may or may not include a subsidy.” Implementing this policy is, for many companies, an attempt to inspire the same amount of productivity employees are able to achieve at home.
How else does BYOD come in handy? Gartner says that BYOD drives innovation for CIOs and the business by increasing the number of mobile application users in the workforce. Gartner explains that the ability to have all your employees using applications creates the opportunity to revolutionize your company’s mobile email and other communications. It sounds pretty great, right? Bring your own personally selected device and have the ability to use it productively all day. Unfortunately, BYOD is proving to create a lot of problems for IT departments and CIOs.
Employees bringing their own devices raises questions about the security of corporate assets. What happens when the device gets lost? How should an IT department learn to put up with devices that no longer fit into company guidelines? The Guardian explores another potential danger: Maybe it isn’t the device that companies should fear, but the data that can be accessed with that device. On the basic level, an employer will need to ensure that work data will not be merged with an employee’s personal data. And, if the device is used at home and at work, non-employees such as family members, may use the device and end up with access to work data.
So with all of these risks, why are many CIOs still taking the plunge? The Guardian suggests that people tend to take better care of a device when they own it themselves. And, the promise of employees achieving more is undeniably attractive for companies, as long as they are fortified with steps to ensure correct and consistent use.
What are the right steps? According to the Guardian, “Getting the right policy in place – that’s understood by employees with backing at board level – is essential.” And, according to HP, effective BYOD solutions will allow employees to use not only different devices, but also different platforms. When it comes to security, the same security rules should extend to people using wireless as well as wired devices (desktops count too!) to help reduce the IT burden. In order to ease the deployment, HP recommends that your BYOD solutions should be able to work with your current software and hardware. Lastly, have a system in place allowing you to see how many people are using BYOD and which apps and functions they are using. This not only gives you more control, but it also will help you collect information that you can use in the future. Armed with these steps, CIOs can hope to find more success in their BYOD endeavor.

So, if you don’t know where to get started with a blueprint for your app, Rocket Farm Studios can take the pressure off.

We’re the tops

August 8, 2014
 
Dan Katcher

Remember last week, when we shared this fascinating new report on the Internet of Things recently released by the Application Developers Alliance?
Well, apparently we aren’t the only ones who think the report — and the six industry-specific follow-ups planned for the coming months — is worth a little fanfare. Not only did the folks at App Developer Magazine  cover the release, they are currently featuring the story front and center on their home page.
“These are companies that are investing heavily in IoT personnel and resources, so you can bet they have done their homework on the subject,” magazine publisher Stuart Parkerson writes of the Application Developers Alliance.
As members of the alliance, we here at Rocket Farm heartily agree.

So, if you don’t know where to get started with a blueprint for your app, Rocket Farm Studios can take the pressure off.

The 3 big winners in the age of IoT

August 1, 2014
 
Dan Katcher

IoTautoWe’ve all heard tell of the coming golden age: refrigerators that order up groceries when we run low, thermostats that learn our temperature preferences, clothes that adjust to the weather. It’s a vision of the future in which dozens of useful, everyday objects, chat with each other through the Internet, making our lives easier, more efficient, and just plain cooler. It’s called the Internet of Things, or IoT, and there is every chance it is going to be glorious.
With this coming revolution in mind, the DC-based Application Developers Alliance has just released the first in a planned series of papers investigating the promise of and the challenges facing the Internet of Things. The whole paper is certainly worth a read. But as I perused the report, I noticed that the analysis suggests a few entities are particularly well poised to benefit from the changes to come:

  1. Doctors and patients: So many reports on the Internet of Things use home-based examples to illustrate the potential – and clearly we’re not innocent. The alliance paper, however, points out that doctors and patients may see some of the biggest gains from the coming changes. Wearable sensors will be able to track vital signs and alert doctors of any troublesome changes, allowing medical intervention before problems become critical. Even patients not being monitored by such sensors would benefit: More efficient doctors mean better, more timely, and potentially less costly treatment for everyone.
  2. Savvy entrepreneurs: Now, when this new system is still figuring out exactly what it will be, is the ideal time for enterprising entrepreneurs to stake their ground. There’s money on the table; Cisco, for example, is offering a prize of $250,000 to be split between three promising new IoT start-ups. And there’s opportunity; as the Internet makes the leap from computer and phones to toasters and cars, suddenly our whole lives are ripe for new innovation.
  3. The Earth: The Internet of Things is all about making things run more smoothly. And this kind of efficiency will lead to better resource management and increased sustainability. Driverless cars communicating with other vehicles will keep to fuel-efficient speeds and calculate the shortest routes. Smart homes will never let a light bulb burn too long or keep the heat running when everyone’s out of the house.

The main obstacle to achieving these gains is the ongoing struggle for standardization (more detail in the paper. Seriously, just go read it.). Neither businesses nor consumers will want to dive in if they think they will need different sets of equipment or software for every new function they want. And no entrepreneur wants to be the one to bet big on the IoT equivalent of Betamax.
But these problems are already on the way to resolution, and the Internet of Things is coming soon to a toaster near you. What applications are you eager to see in your home? Your doctor’s office? Your school? Your office? How do you want the IoT to change your life?

So, if you don’t know where to get started with a blueprint for your app, Rocket Farm Studios can take the pressure off.