Telecommuting has a significant impact on IT operational costs, energy conservation, green computing, as well as the shifts in the lifestyle of telecommuters. Regarding energy conservation, telecommuting results in a reduced consumption of gasoline, a reduced use of energy in road network maintenance and expansion owing to reduced traffic, as well as reduced greenhouse emissions and pollutants. Telecommuting also lowers the IT operational costs since it provides the employees with the flexibility of working from home. Moreover, telecommuting through Green IT helps in enhancing green computing sustainability by producing products and materials with lower impact; reduced consumption of energy used by computers and data centres, as well as an end to life management and better recycling (Crandall & Longge, 2013). Additionally, telecommuting provides telecommuters with the opportunity of working from home, for example, parents with new born babies.
Business infrastructure should be designed as disaster-resistant so as to allow employees to continue performing their wok functions in the case of a disaster event, such as hurricane, earthquake, or storm. However, such an approach should be incorporated into the process of project planning, design, as well as development during the earliest possible stages. As a result, this will make it easy to base material and design decisions on the whole integrated building approach. Moreover, it is critical in designing high-performance buildings and adopting strategies exceeding the requirements of the model building code to aid in disaster resistance (Prasad, Su, Altay & Tata, 2015). Additionally, depending on the most common hazards, the construction type and the location of a proposed facility or building, and the building’s performance requirements, the structure should be designed in a manner that it is capable of resisting the effect of natural disasters, such as the induced loads.
Telecommuting is also characterized with certain advantages and disadvantages as outlined in the table below:
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Commuting is not a must implying that people can work from wherever they are so long as there is an internet and a computer. | Reduced human interaction and socialization as one is always indoors isolated from the society. |
| It increases savings as no transport costs required. | It leads to blurring personal life and work since working from home does not allow one in shutting down his/her personal life while working. |
| It results to more flexibility since most of jobs done at home allows one to have flexible schedules. | Challenges to demonstrate workload as there is minimal interaction with managers and co-workers. |
| It increases independency as there is no constant reminders, office politics, and distracting co-workers. | Lack of supervision over the staff offered by managers and executives, since the staff will be working from remote locations. |
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has a considerable effect on IT infrastructure with regards to IT support, data management, telecommuting, security, knowledge, and green computing. When the BYOD policy is not implemented correctly, it becomes a vulnerability to enterprises and businesses. However, this is because some of the easily compromised and unmanaged devices will be used in accessing sensitive and even confidential data (Ansaldi, 2013). As a result, the accessed data has the possibility of ending up in wrong hands through many ways, which increases pressure on the IT managers to use their knowledge in managing and securing these devices, as well as protecting the proprietary data of the company.
- Ansaldi, H. (2013). Addressing the Challenges of the ‘Bring Your Own Device’ Opportunity. CPA Journal, 83(11), 63-65.
- Crandall, W., & Longge, G. (2013). An Update on Telecommuting: Review and Prospects for Emerging Issues. SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075), 70(3), 30-37.
- Prasad, S., Su, H., Altay, N., & Tata, J. (2015). Building disaster-resilient micro enterprises in the developing world. Disasters, 39(3), 447-466. doi:10.1111/disa.12117