But for Scott’s first point. People bringing there own hardware to work is not about the brand I think, it is rather like driving a low budget Opel then a Porsche. (-:

Actually, speaking about the development sandbox and VirtualBox / VMWare, that is exactly what we’re doing here at atHome Group in Luxembourg. If you’d like to share some experience, feel free to get in touch with StephanKasdorfreagroupcom He’s the man handling this stuff over here and has done a great job so far.

On the other hand, Scott Stacey makes a very valid point above about administering incidents of BYOC-ers breaking an appropriate use policy. For all the trust that you may have in a team, there’ll always been one member that breaks the rules. I’d be interested to hear how other implementors of a BYOC policy handle such situations; a formal warning, just as if the transgression occurred on company equipment, or a zero tolerance policy of removing an employee’s BYOC privilege on the first incident?

Technical tangent: virtual machine images are not only good for standardising and deploying workstations, but can be excellent solutions for managing/deploying sandbox environments and (most importantly) for providing a comprehensive cross-platform testing setup without requiring many separate physical machines (e.g. the free VirtualPC images for testing IE6/7/8). Bundling an effective VM workstation & dev sandbox, a virtualised test setup and a BYOC policy could make for a nifty development ecosystem.

Its benefits like these that make employees far stickier to their organization. Throw in the support aspect and you’ve got a real winner (while potentially bridging the gap between IT and the business).

First of all, I believe that in a company that chooses to supply equipment; then anyone working for such a company should have tools that allow a person to be successful at their role – hardware and software should NEVER be inadequate and require supplement by the individual.

So I will take it as a given that people will have adequate equipment. Now they may not like the style/brand/colour/weight of their equipment (e.g. not every company car can be Toyota no matter how much you hate your Opel/Holden/Ford/Nissan etc.) Basically, if you don’t like the equipment, but it is not limiting your productivity – then bad luck, sorry, there are many things I would rather have in my life as well.

Secondly, I believe that in a company that chooses to have and enforce an ‘appropriate usage policy’; then anyone working for such a company must understand that there are real, substantive, painful consequences to deviating from those acceptable use ‘guidelines’. In the case of company cars, its pretty clear to see that attempting a track record at Nurbergring with a company Toyota/Holden/Opel/Ford/ etc.would not be acceptable…

Unfortunately, in the normal (mundane) course of using our personal equipment (computers) we most likely transgress on those policies – even if that is because the policy is badly written, wholly out of date, viewed as paleolithic in origin, etc. This is assuming that individuals never look at, peruse, any of the incredibly popular, lucrative, enticing, and successful websites/software/applications that tread on the accepted mores and ethics of the global community. Even more unfortunately, enforcement of the policy if and when evidence of transgression is seen/found/traced etc. on personal equipment is a bucket of pain that I would not want to have to administer.

Soon I will hear howls of ‘antiquated policy interfering with sexy company’. Basically, if you don’t like the policy, but it is not limiting your productivity – then bad luck, sorry, there are many things I would rather have different in my life as well – build a bridge and get over it; otherwise, fix the policy!

So its not security, its not individual trust – its the letter of the law as enacted by enforceable corporate policy and employment contracts that really gets in the way of bringing personal computers to the workplace.

Old Willie’ certainly had his quote about lawyers right….

1.) do not install or configure the stuff during worktime

2.) be responible for the security, installing a virus scan or check the envirnoment from time to time, but that already should be given, because in my case i am also using online banking and other work for customers which is confidential.

3.) use the system for hardware intesive programms, for example having server systems running on it also speeds up the desktop environment and supports your workflow on that system. Another advantage is that you can run your email client on that system also and have the company equipment on focus on the development in my case, cold also be booking software or excel etc.

But who takes care about all of that? I did not find an answer to that question, but i think the persons that think about bringing the own hardware to work usually are that responsible to manage it themselfs, of course there are some times black sheeps but they are everywhere.