Terms like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and the Consumerization of IT are hot topics right now. The explosion in mobile device usage is having major effects in how IT departments both manage and design systems. Recent research has shown that more than half of U.S. employees access work information on smart phones that were not issues by their employer. The simple fact is that employees now expect, if not demand, to be able to access data and applications from their own phones.

So, how can IT departments better manage device proliferation inherent with BYOD scenarios, while also attempting to keep costs under control? Leveraging the cloud in various ways is a good place to start. For example, using cloud-based storage to create centralized document stores that employees can access from any smartphone is one way to enable BYODers without building a storage environment from scratch.

And when it comes to extending applications to any mobile device, Caspio is a great way to go mobile without breaking the bank. Caspio’s mobile capabilities allow users to build mobile views of any Caspio application, optimized for the mobile web. Mobile web apps are device-agnostic, so IT departments need not worry about which devices are/are not supported. And Caspio’s low cost should make any CIO smile.

BYOD also poses security issues when it comes to corporate data, particularly when the data is shared via Microsoft Excel or other files that can be emailed around, or left on a device. However, with Capsio, while the data is available from anywhere on any device, it’s always protected and only accessible to the user that satisfies the company’s security requirements (more on this in an upcoming post – but learn more about Caspio’s access-level security HERE). So if the device is not password protected or gets compromised, data that is in Caspio remains protected.

Also, Caspio is a great way to re-envision existing apps for the mobile age. As the above research also shows, mobile app development is outnumbering native PC app development at a 4-to-1 pace. Developers and even non-programmers can use Caspio to build fresh, mobile-ready version of existing legacy apps in a short time frame.

The BYOD revolution is here – and IT needs to take into consideration that workers need to be connected 24/7. Using a platform like Caspio, IT departments can solve a lot of the issues caused by BYOD trend – and without a lot of cost or complexity.