<p>The latest Forrester stats show that the majority of enterprises support BYOD. Whether you think it's a good idea or not, it doesn't matter. It's reality.</p><p>So it makes sense that Microsoft plans to increases its support for BYOD, such as in the Service Pack 1 release of System Center 2012. After all, it was Microsoft that provided the core technology, Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), allowing mobile devices to be managed when connected to Exchange servers. When Microsoft licensed that technology to Apple for iOS and OS X, and then to Google and others for Google Apps and Android, safe BYOD became first a possibility then a reality.</p><p>[ Understand how to both manage and benefit from the consumerization of IT trend with InfoWorld's "Consumerization Digital Spotlight" PDF special report. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]</p><p>Exchange ActiveSync policies provide a few dozen controls and settings, such as password length and history, camera disablement, encryption requirement, remote lock or wipe, and so forth. But in Exchange, EAS policies can only go so far. That's why most large businesses use mobile device management (MDM) software that exploits the additional settings native to Apple's iOS or implemented on Android by some manufacturers such as Motorola Mobility and Samsung.</p><p><a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/microsoft-finally-joins-the-byod-revolution-it-enabled-203845">Keep reading...</a></p>