Let's be honest -- users are controlling the IT agenda, like it or not. They love their devices and the apps on them, and they want to use them at work. Clearly, vendors and enterprises alike have recognized this is more than a fad and are fueling the secondary driving force behind BYOD: the potential to make and/or save money by capitalizing on the movement.

TECH DEBATE:

Allowing employees to bring their own devices to work as it gives them the ability to avoid the expense of buying or leasing the devices themselves. These savings do come at a cost however; personal devices still need to be controlled and managed -- hence the enormous vendor revenue opportunity.

Make no mistake about it, it won't be long before there will be unfathomable numbers of these devices to control and manage throughout the corporate world. In a recent report, that 90% of businesses will support corporate applications on mobile devices by 2014. And survey data suggests that we can expect to see 3.47 devices per person in 2015 and a whopping 6.58 devices per person in 2020. This begs the question: How many devices per person will the enterprise ultimately need to manage?

With this in mind, let's take a look at the basic options for addressing the BYOD phenomenon. With minor investments and relatively simple changes to infrastructure and processes, organizations can choose to: