Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) mobile device management (MDM) technology has revolutionalized mobile phone usage for businesses. BYOD MDM eliminates the need for separate business and personal mobile phones, creating a secure work environment on personal devices that ensures privacy for employees.
Today, businesses are discovering that the principles of BYOD MDM also apply to laptops. With the right software, employers can give both Mac and PC users the freedom to use their personal laptops for work, and admins can onboard new users almost instantaneously–all while ensuring company data security.
How BYOD MDM for Laptops Works
MDM for laptops creates a company-controlled Secure Enclave on a user’s Mac or PC, where all data is encrypted and access is managed. Work applications run locally within the Secure Enclave, protecting and isolating business activity and personal use.
Once installed, the Secure Enclave safeguards company data without interfering with the user’s native experience. In this way, BYOD MDM ensures that work remains secure, access is controlled, and personal files and apps remain untouched—striking a balance between business data security and usability.
How to Deploy BYOD MDM for Laptops
Unlike the outdated solutions for remote laptop management, BYOD MDM doesn’t require hands-on hardware configuration. Onboarding and setup is self-guided — employees receive an email with a link to install the Secure Enclave and any apps or tools within it. All tech runs locally on the user’s machine.
Whereas other remote management tech like VDI sometimes monitors the entire device, BYOD MDM software monitors and protects only the activity within the Secure Enclave. Employees can spend their non-work time streaming Netflix, cruising social apps, or video-chatting with friends without worrying about their employer seeing these activities. At the same time, companies can rest assured that their sensitive data is completely secure and separate from any personal activity on the machine.
What Are the Benefits of MDM for Laptops?
As we mentioned earlier, BYOD MDM offers across-the-board benefits. Here’s why:
Lower Onboarding and Offboarding Costs
Buying and shipping a company laptop is expensive, especially if your new hire lives thousands of miles away. When an employee leaves the company, you have to pay for shipping again to get that laptop back to … wherever your laptops go. Enabling BYOD for personal laptops eliminates these shipping costs and decreases IT time spent on laptop logistics.
Onboarding and offboarding is also costly in terms of admin time. Configuring the device, installing apps, setting permissions, etc., can be a big drain on resources if you’re steadily hiring. IT teams also need to move swiftly to offboard employees when their employment ends, remotely disabling access to company files, data, and apps. With BYOD MDM for laptops, you can disable access to the Secure Enclave in mere minutes with a remote wipe.
Minimal Attack Surface
The security risks for company-issued laptops are higher when those devices are fully remote. A weak user-WiFi password or uninstalled updates are two common risks with remote laptops, but here’s one that employers might find especially alarming: 90% of employees use their company laptops for personal purposes, and some of them use their work laptops to access the dark web.
IT teams can restrict access to certain sites and apps and block downloads on company-owned laptops, but covering every attack surface around the clock requires a lot of effort. Plus, you can’t always count on employees to follow company BYOD policies. With BYOD MDM for laptops, the Secure Enclave shields business systems and sensitive company data from attacks, regardless of whether the user’s laptop has security vulnerabilities.
Compliance Control
A Secure Enclave for enterprise includes end-to-end data encryption, configurable DLP policies, and granular access controls. Any data – whether it’s a conversation in a Zoom meeting or EMR patient data – is protected in accordance with the highest compliance requirements.
Functionality
BYOD MDM for laptops runs applications locally on the computer, unlike VDI. With VDI, everything is hosted remotely in a server, which causes extreme latency for end-users. In the age of daily video calls, this performance deficiency can be extremely frustrating for users. A Secure Enclave eliminates these challenges, ensuring a seamless, familiar experience for end users with no latency.
Virtual desktops also aren’t ideal for working on large files and saving progress. Larger documents can freeze, crash, or fail to save changes, whereas a Secure Enclave ensures a seamless user experience free from interruptions and lost work.
User Experience and Productivity
Some employees might not have strong opinions about whether a Mac or PC is “better,” but many people prefer to work with devices and systems that they know well. Enabling BYOD for laptops offers a better experience for employees, and when they’re working in their preferred environment, they’re likely to be more productive.
Virtual Desktops Are Yesterday’s Technology
VDI isn’t the right technology for businesses that want to expand their remote workforce and attract top talent. To enable scalable BYOD, companies should consider Venn’s Blue Border™, the Secure Enclave Built for Enterprise. This solution incorporates best-in-class BYOD MDM principles for securing company data on unmanaged computers.
Discover why enterprise leaders trust Venn for turnkey compliance, the highest standards in data security, and reliable performance that keeps business goals on track. Book a demo to see why now is the time to leave VDI in the past.
