Personal device headaches for IT

You know, it probably started the day that someone wanted to bring his favorite abacus to work. Since then, people have wanted to bring their own tools--right up to the Blackberries and Treos of today--into the enterprise. When they do, it inevitably leads to headaches for IT. After all, the information technology pros want manageability, standards conformance, and support-line ease. Users, on the other hand, want a single device that takes care of all the business and personal tasks they have to deal with on a daily basis. The latest  personal tool to make the IT department's life more difficult is Apple's iPhone, which is causing problems ranging from application incompatibility to jealous rage among fellow employees. Creating a set of policies that everyone can live with is harder than it sounds--but much easier than running a business with no personal device policies at all.

For more on the difficulties of personal devices in corporate IT:
- Read the practical advice at eWeek