BYOD is the buzzword in business IT at the moment, but is there more to it than just easily spouted rhetoric by a few industry influencers?
A study by Gartner would suggest there is. It predicts that 38% of organisations will stop providing mobile devices to employees by 2016 and 50% will mandate a BYOD policy by 2017. That’s a significant enough portion of organisations for IT professionals to stand up and take notice.
So what does this mean for the tech side of businesses? On our ITIL courses, we emphasise the difficulty in managing multiple and diverse platforms from both a support and security perspective, something which BYOD only increases.
With BYOD getting more and more popular, does this mean that the traditional model of internal IT support and service management will have to be entirely scrapped? Or can it adapt to the challenges it faces with BYOD and continue to be the technical bedrock of any business?
Why BYOD Could Spell the end for Internal IT Support
BYOD throws up all sorts of issues for businesses, and in particular, for the IT crew. In the time of blanket company Blackberries and uniform Dell PCs, IT support was in the most part, a lot simpler: if you could fix a problem on one machine, you could probably fix it on any of them.
These days, to be able to provide full IT support to an organisation, you’d need to be an expert in Windows, iOS, Android and maybe even Blackberry OS. People like this don’t exactly grow on trees.
Many are wondering whether the recent advent of Windows 8, with its apparent targeting of multi-platform synchronicity, will bring an end to the semi-chaos that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) can inflict upon a company system.
In recent years the explosion in popularity of mobile and tablet devices has brought with it some big problems for IT departments to handle. Gone are the days when a company could issue its employees with a generic Blackberry and ‘work’ laptop.
These days, people want to use their iPhones, iPads and any number of different Androids and other devices to access work material, but securing and aligning these personal devices with the company network can be a nightmare.
Various features of Windows 8 seem to be directly intended to make it easier for workers to have their work and personal devices converge. However it isn’t just a question of what Windows 8 does to address BYOD issues but whether or not the uptake will be sufficient enough to bring about significant changes for IT in business.
Being able to effectively manage the processes and systems of a company’s network is integral to the running of a business which is why it is so important to adopt a service management system like ITIL. We offer ITIL training that will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which IT can work for the business and not just for itself. Read the rest of "Will Windows 8 Solve the Issues With BYOD?"
In my last ITIL blog post, I alleged that last year over 100,000 people worldwide invested sat ITIL exams – well, I just got the figures for the first part of this year. So far, 20,000 people per month have sat the Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management! I’m beginning to worry that I’ll soon be out of a job – surely, there can’t be anyone left who hasn’t got an ITIL qualification! Certainly, everyone who attended the last ITIL course at Silicon Beach has…
As a Best Practice framework, ITIL describes a consensus view of generic practices for Service Management, derived from 20 years of experience and proven through real-world application.
ITIL attributes its own success to a number of core principles. The advice and guidance describes Best Practice for IT Service Management and the numbers I quoted above suggests that a large community accept ITIL as a useful ingredient in good practice for their organisations. Additionally, ITIL is “non-proprietary, non-prescriptive, vendor neutral and business-focused”.
Perhaps most important, however, is that it is process-based and provides a measurement framework which supports both performance management and the reporting requirements of governance at all levels. Read the rest of "ITIL – A Process-Based Approach"
Who better to explain exactly what ITIL is, and how it can help you and your business, than our lead ITIL trainer Giles?
Recently, I saw the exam results from the last “Foundation Certificate in Information Technology Service Management” (a.k.a. “ITIL Foundation“) training that I ran at Silicon Beach. Congratulations to all the attendees – you all passed!
But what is ITIL and why would you want to book onto the next ITIL course at Silicon Beach?
First published in 1989, the IT Infrastructure Library, or ITIL for short, is in its third version. Variously described as “advice and guidance for IT service management”, “a best practice framework for ITSM” and “common sense written down”, ITIL is, as its name suggests, a collection of books. The library currently contains five volumes which describe a life-cycle for IT services, from conception, through delivery and optimisation, into obsolescence and retirement. Last year alone, more than 100,000 people worldwide sat ITIL exams and increasingly, certification at Foundation level or higher is seen as prerequisite for consideration for jobs in IT support and delivery. Read the rest of "What Is ITIL? Common Sense, Written Down"
In May 2007, the ITIL® management framework was comprehensively updated from V2 to V3 – with V2 fully withdrawn in 2010.
However, ITIL is continually refreshed and updated to make sure that it meets industry requirements, and the latest new edition is being released on 29 July 2011.
This latest edition of ITIL incorporates improvements and suggested changes to the framework; and marks a move from describing ITIL by version numbers but instead simply as ITIL. Different editions will be distinguished by year, e.g. ‘ITIL 2011′.
For more about this update, see ITIL website FAQs. ITIL courses at Silicon Beach Training will always cover the latest release.
The first thing to be clear on is that ITIL 2011 is an update, not a new version (like V2-V3). The updates to the publications are designed to:
Resolve any errors or inconsistencies in the text and diagrams, both in content and presentation.
Improve the publications by addressing issues which are largely to do with clarity, consistency, correctness and completeness.
Address suggestions for change made by the training community to make ITIL easier to teach.
Review the Service Strategy publication to ensure that the concepts are explained in the clearest, most concise and accessible way possible. There is no notion of simplifying the concepts; rather, improving the exposition of the ideas.
The updated publications will be easier to read and understand, having addressed errors and inconsistencies, and issues raised in the Change Control Log and by the training community.
In our latest video resource our ITIL trainer Richard explains what ITIL and service management are. We run ITIL Training Courses in Brighton, Sussex, including ITIL Foundation Training
Transcript
Colin – Today we’re here with Richard who is our lead trainer for ITIL and we’re just going to fire at him some of the questions that we are quite often asked by our clients about ITIL. Firstly, what is service management? Read the rest of "VIDEO: What is ITIL?"
Prior to attending our ITIL Training courses we ask delegates to do a little pre-course reading to familiarise themselves with some key terms, which all helps when preparing for the ITIL Foundation Exam.
The following is the pre-course reading we provide before our ITIL Foundation Training course – but we thought we’d share it for free on the web for everyone else – we’re just nice like that!
In my last 
In May 2007, the ITIL® management framework was comprehensively updated from V2 to V3 – with V2 fully withdrawn in 2010.
