The London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is allowing members of its 14,000 staff to use their own devices or those supplied by official sponsors such as Samsung, TechWeekEurope has learned.
LOCOG has enlisted the services of Good Technology to secure its extensive mobile workforce, which will help stage 26 Olympic and 20 Paralympic sports during the course of the Games.
Staff will receive secure access to email services, calendars, contacts and applications as well as extra protection against lost or stolen devices, as part of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) project.
“Being part of such an important event is an honour and something the whole team is proud of,” said Andrew Jacques, general manager for EMEA at Good Technology. “Staging the Games is a huge challenge and we are delighted to be supporting LOCOG by securing its team of mobile workers.”
The majority of staff will rely heavily on mobile connectivity and LOCOG hopes that by embracing a BYOD strategy and permitting them to use their own gadgets, they will be more productive and efficient.
“London 2012 will be the first Games to be impacted by the consumerisation of technology, our team expects IT services that work around them,” said Gerry Pennell, CIO of LOCOG. “Good Technology’s secure, containerised solution means we don’t have to compromise on devices or security – we were impressed that in just four hours it integrated into our wider corporate IT infrastructure and gave us exactly what we wanted.”
Pennell told TechWeekEurope recently that he believed the consumerisation of technology was the biggest challenge facing an IT department today and said the rise of the smartphone influenced much of LOCOG’s planning for London 2012.
The organising committee has set up a partnership between operators and BT to improve mobile coverage across the Olympic Park as well as setting up the world’s largest high-density Wi-Fi network at the site.
The site’s IT operations will be controlled from the Technology Operations Centre (TOC), which is monitored 24 hours a day.
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BYOD exists in many organizations, whether officially sanctioned or not. So the main issue becomes how to handle it. Instead of denial, companies should take control of the situation.
Does BYOD have its issues and headaches (security,support)? No doubt. The key is managing those issues. Security issues and IT management headaches (how do I support all those devices?) can be addressed by using new HTML5 technologies that enable users to connect to corporate applications and desktops without requiring IT staff to install anything on user devices. For example, Ericom AccessNow is an HTML5 RDP client that enables remote users to securely connect from various devices (including iPads, iPhones, Android devices and Chromebooks) to any RDP host, including Terminal Server and VDI virtual desktops, and run their applications and desktops in a browser. This enhances security by keeping the organization’s applications and data separate from the employee’s personal device.
Since AccessNow does not require any software installation on the end user device – just an HTML5 browser, network connection, URL address and login details - IT staff end up with less support hassles. An employee that brings in their own device merely opens their HTML5-compatible browser and connects to the URL given them by the IT admin.
Check out this link for more info:
http://www.ericom.com/Ericom_AccessNow_Products.asp?URL_ID=708
Yes, I work for Ericom