So many devices, so little policy

Only one possible solution

Boot from your own USB storage device. Even then, you are trusting the BIOS is OK and that there are no hardware key loggers.

Sailors

Why do many of the Reg headlines and sub headlines have a nautical theme today?

We need answers.

BYOD - problems with security, accessibility, compatibility, disgruntled employees (you want me to pay for the item that I need to do my job properly? Are you kidding me?), etc.

Of course it's cost-saving. But you could just use methods that everyone else has for decades and supply your employees with the proper tools to do the job.

I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole as an employee or an employer. You have no idea where your data ends up (don't tell me you track it, because you can't), you have no idea what's stored on your employees devices when they leave, you have no right to demand search/seizure of that hardware if they run off with your data, you have no way to control what they bring in with them, you are liable if they break it while in the course of their work ("Hey, I need a new iPad... I know... I'll take it into work and claim on their insurance!"), you are liable if it blows up and injures someone else who works there (think Dell laptop batteries, etc.), you are liable if it's stolen, you are liable if it breaks the network. Additionally your employees might think it "cool" to access on their smartphone, until it interferes with their work, until they are MADE to use it because they've proved they can use it even if it's not the best tool for the job (i.e. "I couldn't read my email because the desktop PC broke" - "So, what about your phone that we KNOW works because you used it to get your email last year?"), until their normal tools suffer (or even disappear) for the sake of "allowing" them to bring in their own devices, until they realise they are footing the bill for something they use mainly at work and for work purposes (and work out the taxation on that when it's part-personal, part-business).

BYOD is just a nightmare from every angle. There's nothing wrong with being able to plug in any device you like and doing business (that's just sensible standards-compliance). There is something wrong with "approving" the use of devices that you have zero control or ownership over.

Not even a policeman can make me delete a photo or other data from my personal phone without formal confiscations and court orders. What makes you think that's a sensible path to follow with company data?

BYOD is just a management fad that nobody thought through. Literally pie-in-the-sky. What next? Bring your own desk? Just as stupid and just as many pitfalls.