There is so much hype around BYOD and MDM solutions that those folks focused on it are like the audience at a David Copperfield show. Their eyes are trained on one aspect of the show while something else they don’t really see happens on the same stage. This is how people are viewing BYOD solutions, myopically focused on device management and missing what is going on right under their noses.
Although I can’t tell you how David Copperfield turns a beautiful blonde into a beautiful Bengal tiger, I can tell you what folks are missing when they only focus on MDM. They’re missing all the other devices being brought into the enterprise. If you’re only going to look at those devices that are brought to your front door and laid down on your front step in an almost a sacrificial sense then you won’t see the whole picture. You’ll miss the gaming consoles over in engineering, you’ll miss the personal WiFi printers in accounting, and you’ll never see the WiFi routers the marketing team set up. Not only will you have no knowledge of those devices, you won’t have control or have the ability to manage them either.
Of course the folks bringing those devices in are good hearted folks and they wouldn’t consider actually stealing corporate information. For instance the bookkeeper that is leaving early but taking work home with her isn’t printing (on her private WiFi printer) general ledger pages to sell on the black market. But when those papers walk out the door, you’re security has been breached. The marketing manager that setup a private WiFi network didn’t leave the default WAP password in place so hackers could get access to your network from the parking lot, he’s just a little lazy or not technically savvy (certainly not as savvy as the guy in the van in the parking lot that just found the WiFi).
You’re employees aren’t bad people so, really, why would you put controls in place for such nice folks… What harm could come from being myopic when you’re surrounded by employees full of good intentions!