Companies often have to manage a wide range of devices, from company-owned devices to employees’ personal smartphones, all combined with a mix of different usages.
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BYOD: Bring Your Own Device
BYOD is an abbreviation describing the trend towards the adoption of employee-owned devices within a company. Employees use their own devices for business purposes in a work context. This practice, which is becoming more and more widespread in the workplace, is highly controversial and raises the issue of security and protection of sensitive data, which can be accessed from anywhere using often unprotected devices.
However, BYOD offers many advantages when well managed. By creating a secure work profile on the terminals with an MDM solution, it is possible to avoid the risk against data security (loss, theft, network issues, etc.) and to leverage the benefits of this trend. More flexibility and mobility for employees, lower equipment costs for companies, etc.
More information about BYOD and secure work profile here: Work profile.
CYOD: Choose Your Own Device
CYOD is a practice where the company allows its employees to choose the devices they want to use to work, from a limited selection: for example, an organization may allow Android devices but not Apple or BlackBerry. In this case, it is the company that buys and is in charge of managing the mobile devices, keeping control of app updates and installations.
COPE: Company Owned / Personally Enabled
COPE stands for Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled, or “professional profile for mixed company-owned devices”. It’s a mobile device management (MDM) mode designed to reconcile the company’s need for device and business data security, with the need to respect employee privacy. It is particularly well-suited to companies that need to have greater control over their employees’ mobile devices, while allowing them to use them for personal purposes.
With TinyMDM COPE mode, the device is purchased and owned by the company, which has control over security policies and device configurations. Employees, on the other hand, are authorized to use the device for personal purposes, such as installing personal applications, checking their private e-mail, using their social networks… There is a clear and well-established separation between professional and personal data, with no way for the company to have an overview of the latter.
The company’s IT administrators can manage business applications, apply security updates and remotely delete business data if necessary, while leaving the employee’s personal data intact.
COBO: Company Owned / Business Only
These are company-owned mobile devices, intended for professional use only and fully managed by the company. The IT team is strongly advised to implement a management solution (MDM) in order to keep full control over the devices: app management, passwords reinforcement, Wi-Fi connections, updates management; internet filtering, location tracking… Only authorized work apps are available, so the terminals guarantee productivity and security.
COSU: Company Owned / Single Use
COSU devices, or dedicated devices, are owned by the company and their access is restricted to single or very specific use. These devices are enrolled in Kiosk mode, which is the most appropriate solution for self-service terminals (points of sales, museums, libraries, etc.) or those that have to respond to a specific task (inventory, scanning, etc.).
More information on Kiosk mode and dedicated devices here: Kiosk mode.
21st of May, 2019