Roisin McKeever of Veratta discusses the digital challenges facing companies in the modern information age. 

At some point in our adult lives, we will invariably find ourselves sharing a home with other family members, a partner, or housemates. With these communal living arrangements comes one of the greatest threats to peaceful human existence, sharing a fridge. Crumbs in the butter, empty milk cartons, or returning from the shops with a week's worth of shopping to find that the fridge is full of Tupperware.

The pain and tension can be too much to bear and the risks to meal times and relationships can be catastrophic.

Due to the rapid rise in use of mobile technology over the last 15 years and the mass adoption of smart devices in the last eight years businesses have, somewhat inadvertently, found themselves in a fridge sharing situation with their employees.

According to Cisco's 2013 global mobile data forecast, the mobile data network in 2013 was 18 times greater than the entire Internet in 2000 and the number of mobile-connected devices was forecasted to exceed the world's population this year.

With the increased availability of mobile technology, there has come a rise in the number of employees who are able to work remotely or flexibly for part of their working week.

Historically, the majority of organisations have provided corporate devices that are personally enabled (COPE) to facilitate flexible working, however, this trend is changing and a recent article from Gartner suggests that by 2017, half of all employers will require employees to provide their own mobile device for work purposes.

This bring your own device, (BYOD) culture could bring with it a 'shared fridge' issue for businesses. With the COPE system the company own the fridge, but allow their employees to keep their food in it, as long as they adhere to the rules of usage.

Control and ownership remain with the business, meaning that they can closely manage the associated security risks. However, with BYOD the employee owns the fridge and the employer has less say over what is kept in it and the rules concerning butter in the jam.

For the security-minded business, the pros and cons of each system need to be assessed. For example if a COPE device is lost or stolen, it can be remotely wiped to prevent data loss, but with personal devices this may be more difficult and in many countries it is actually illegal for a company to wipe a device that it doesn't own, meaning that it is solely reliant on the employee's choices.

From the employee's point of view, they may have privacy concerns about allowing the company access to, or control of their personal device. Compatibility issues, maintenance and technical support, might also be a concern for all involved.

So what is the key to harmonious communal fridge or mobile device use? Segregation of the device is a possible solution with distinctly managed areas for each party on a localised device.

Separation of devices is also a possibility, but having two mobile devices or fridges may be impractical for some. The third way is for businesses to operate a remote working environment via a BYOD model.

This ensures that employers have control over their data and the security and reliability of remote working practices, whilst employees maintain full privacy and control of their own personal device. The only problem with this solution is that it doesn't fit in with any current fridge technology.

Written by Roisin McKeever, Information Officer, Veratta