While the Company Owned Personally-Enabled (COPE) route is a bit different from roads you have traveled before, IT departments experience with managing endpoints, balancing user needs and security isn’t an unfamiliar landscape. The elements of a COPE strategy are very similar to IT strategies build on over the last two decades: Company provided equipment (desktops, laptops) Centrally managed technology (Active Directory, LDAP, A/V, SCCM, etc.) Application allowlisting (you don’t allow people to install whatever application they want, do you?) Totally controlled and secure endpoint (as much as time and technology allow) The conversation surrounding BYOD vs. COPE continues because of the relative immaturity of devices designed for a mobile workforce compared to the twenty years of continuous improvements for desktops in an enterprise. (Let’s exclude RIM and the Blackberry, a mature enterprise device, which has just lost its appeal.) The current set of popular devices, Androids, iOS, and Windows Phones lack consistent APIs that business tools can take advantage of. This is only compounded by companies confronting a move to cloud services, and which flavor of cloud to chose from. If a company is going to provide a device, or choice of devices (CYOD) these devices have to be centrally managed. The company will installed management apps and change the settings to what best suits them. Mobility is an Insider threat.
http://searchconsumerization.techtarget.com/feature/BYOD-vs-COPE-Why-corporate-device-ownership-could-make-a-comeback