Bringing IT out of the shadows

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is currently a hot topic, but it is only one (albeit major) part of the broader 'shadow IT' challenge. Shadow IT - where business users implement a solution outside the official corporate architecture without consulting the IT department - can include everything from the use of free online services to departmental decisions to adopt SaaS solutions, let alone the actual importing of users' own hardware devices. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is currently a hot topic, but it is only part of the broader 'shadow IT' challenge. There is no silver bullet for solving a problem as complex as shadow IT. However, policy-based networking offers a very useful approach, as it builds policies into the network operating system where they can be centrally managed and maintained up to date, explains Steve Johnson of Extreme Networks. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.