bring your own apps (BYOA)

Bring your own apps (BYOA) is the trend toward employee use of third-party cloud application services in the workplace.

BYOA is an outgrowth of the bring your own device (BYOD) trend towards and the increasing consumerization of IT. Like it or not, employees are bringing the cloud apps they use on their personal devices to work. Popular consumer apps that are being used for business include Dropbox, CloudOn and Google Docs. Cited benefits of IT consumerization and the use of consumer applications include greater employee engagement and satisfaction as well as improved productivity.

Download this free guide

Your Guide to Info Sec Certifications

We’ve collected 30+ certifications for you. Which vendor-neutral and vendor-specific security certifications are best for you? Save time by downloading our list organized by experience level.

Start Download

• Corporate E-mail Address:

  You forgot to provide an Email Address.

  This email address doesn’t appear to be valid.

  This email address is already registered. Please login.

  You have exceeded the maximum character limit.

  Please provide a Corporate E-mail Address.

• • I agree to TechTarget’s Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and the transfer of my information to the United States for processing to provide me with relevant information as described in our Privacy Policy.

  Please check the box if you want to proceed.

• • I agree to my information being processed by TechTarget and its Partners to contact me via phone, email, or other means regarding information relevant to my professional interests. I may unsubscribe at any time.

  Please check the box if you want to proceed.

By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent.

As employee-owned technologies encroach upon the corporate network, however, security becomes increasingly problematic. Corporate data stored in a third-party cloud provider's environment is no longer under the control of the employee's IT department. If an employee's laptop with sensitive data is stolen, administrators can remotely wipe the hard drive but no such solution exists to protect the company in the event of a data breach in the cloud environment.

To deal with these and other issues, many organizations are implementing consumerization policies to establish acceptable use policies (AUP) for third-party software.