BYOD vs. CYOD vs. Buy Gear for your Employees

I have always been an early adopter.  While my tastes have become refined over the years & I don't actually buy every release of a tech line anymore - this is only because I am too busy using the hell out of said tool/toy/gadget.

 When I do go buy new gear - I buy on a generational scale.  I assume that I will use the thing long past the average curve & that it will see a heavy workload for the duration.

I buy the best version that I can get my hands on & if it comes with any free slots or expansion ports I try to fill them up when I buy it.  There's no sense paying for an expansion port that isn't doing anything for you & almost any system will perform better with more RAM, so why hold back?

That being said - you can expect me to use these tools of the trade to the greatest personal advantage.  That is what drives the purchasing decision in the first place.  "Cool" is only about how much power it gives me to easily do awesome things without wanting to break the thing out of frustration.

This is why the notion of BYOD worked perfectly for me.  Give me clearly defined rules like "no proprietary corporate data stored on the device" and I can work with that.  No outlook for my iPhone, I will just use the web-based interface.  Simple.  Everything is on my terms & kept reasonable.  I am free to go find the best tools for the job.

Choose-Your-Own-Device is quite another thing. The notion that there is a limited subset of devices out there & that your internal IT department has to research them & understand them before you are allowed to use them stifles innovation outright.  

It would apparently also set what I see as an unfair burden on the shoulders of employees who are willing to shell out for their own kit by forcing them to keep to a standard for which the company is not itself willing to pay.

The age-old policy of issuing devices to employees solves that issue.  If the company wants everything to work a certain way then they need to foot the bill for it.  This doesn't help with the innovation either but it offers some relief to the wallets of employees and limits the technological options to a manageable subset.

There is no one-size-fits-all policy for corporations, but the answers seems to directly come from those willing to shell out for the gear.  If you own it you control it and the law backs you up on that most of the time.