The technology could help address an issue that has cropped up with increasing frequency at work: Employees who bring their personal mobile devices to work and use them to communicate with clients and to access corporate data. The issue can cause friction at companies that need to safeguard their data on employee-owned smartphones and tablets and want to be able to remotely wipe the devices of data if they're lost or if an employee quits or is fired.
The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend has enabled a more efficient and mobile workforce while exposing companies to a myriad of security and data management quandaries. For example, corporate BYOD policies limit what devices can be used based on the type of mobile device management software their IT shop has deployed.
Next year, software and mobile device manufacturers will enable what are essentially two instances of the same OS on a smartphone. That will give corporations secure control over their data and employees the personal data privacy they want, keeping it from being seen or wiped by corporate IT.
