BYOD is about data management now, not device management, Juniper exec says

SAN FRANCISCO — If you’re an enterprise and your employees are using mobile devices to do some or all of their work, you should be advised of the new shift in the bring-your-own device trend: data management.

During a discussion with Box enterprise group product marketing manager Grant Shirk, AT&T vice president of advanced mobility solutions Mike Troiano, Juniper Networks software-defined networking director of product marketing Steve Shaw, and FireEye manager of security research Vinay Pidathala, Shaw defined for the folks in the room the new direction the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend is taking.

“This is a move away from the enterprise having entire control over the device …, moving away from device management to more data management,” he said.

The conversation is timely, as AT&T announced this morning a few new enhancements to its Toggle offering which lets employees have a separate container on their mobile device entirely dedicated to their work data and uses. That way, the employer can control and monitor its content and data on the device without ever messing with the employee’s personal info on the rest of the device. Toggle also provides a separate phone plan for work use, so the employee can have both on one device.

This is particularly interesting as much of the BYOD conversation thus far has been about employer-dedicated devices and concerns over employees using their own devices and applications to access work content, potentially exposing companies’ proprietary information. Dropbox, for example, was originally brought into the workplace by employees who wanted to access their files from their devices and using an application they liked, eventually resulting in the company formally working to provide enterprise solutions.

“I’m going to let you view and manipulate that content, but I’ll never leave it on the device,” said Shirk.

Troiano added that employees accessing work data after work hours could also have pay implications, as some local regulations would require companies to pay them as they would effectively be “on the clock.”

As enterprises become more and more accepting of the fact that employees want to access their work from wherever and on their own devices, this is an important shift for providers to keep working on and offering flexible yet secure options.