Like many CIOs, Egan found himself in a tight spot that only BYOD had a shot at solving. Pressure was coming from employees claiming they can be of their choosing. Yet a tight IT budget simply couldn't support a huge swath of devices.

"I was getting what I'll call 'feedback' from my business partners that I wasn't offering a broad enough list of devices, as well as getting 'feedback' from our CFO that I was spending too much," Egan says. "I'm losing on both sides."

In the fourth quarter of last year, VMware aggressively rolled out a BYOD program aimed solely at mobile phones. The plan called for 6,000 employees to transition their existing phones from company-liability to personal-liability. They did this by taking ownership of the phone itself and calling the wireless carrier to change over liability.

Another option: They could pay out of pocket for any phone that supports BES or ActiveSync.

BYOD phones tapping into the network fall under VMware's acceptable use policy, giving VMware rights over the device. One is the right to wipe the device, which can lead to loss of personal data. Such arrangements favor the company and can lead to .