I recently participated in a session at the FOSE government IT tradeshow in Washington, D.C. My panel focused on the topic of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and how the trend continues to entice and challenge both private sector and public sector organizations.
In the aggregate (federal, state and local), the U.S. government is one of the largest buyers of IT in the world. Some estimates peg government IT expenditures at over $190 billion annually. Like the private sector, governments at all levels have faced significant resource constraints during the past few years. The recently released Federal Information Technology priorities for 2014 aptly summarize the situation as “innovating with less.”
While budgets will inevitably be tight, it should generally be viewed as a positive by IT solution providers and vendors trying to enter the government space. It suggests government buyers will be more receptive to new technologies and approaches.
The FOSE event helped to confirm there is likely more innovation and technology adoption in the government sector than what is commonly perceived. Given the vastness of government, it’s difficult to generalize too much, but there are lots of interesting examples of agencies, state governments or municipalities doing impressive things with technology. Even if segments of the government are not where they want to be with technology utilization, they appear to recognize the importance and necessity of embracing a tech-mindset.
As it relates to BYOD, CompTIA research indicates approximately two in three companies permit BYOD on some level. Of course, when factoring in shadow or rogue BYOD use, the figures increase further. Within the government, research from TechAmerica suggests about half of federal agencies report having some type of BYOD policy in place.
My co-presenters, government professionals working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Guard, all shared examples of BYOD in action at their agencies. They demonstrated an impressive grasp of the many factors and considerations that must be accounted for in allowing BYOD in environments that may involve classified information, interagency dependencies and strict workforce rules. MDM and MAM solutions play an especially important role in managing BYOD within the government, which likely puts certain agencies well ahead of some private sector companies with adoption.
Look for ever-growing reliance on selective data wiping capabilities, sandboxing (containerization), mobile virtualization, data loss protection, identity management, cloud syncing policies and optimized compliance, provisioning and support management to manage BYOD (and BYOT).
For additional insights into how government agencies approach BYOD and their framework for implementation, check out the Digital Government BYOD Toolkit.
