The alternative is a physically distinct work and personal device. This has been the solution for many years. Only recently have people wanted to "BYOD" and use their personal device for work purposes.
On that point, I very recently discovered [1] that connecting an iOS device to an Exchange account via ActiveSync enables the organization's Exchange administrators to remotely wipe the entire contents of the device - not just the content actually provided via the account, but everything.
I am astonished and disappointed that Apple saw fit not to warn the user this could happen. Even Google gets this right; when you connect an Android device, you get a warning and are required to confirm before proceeding. It's inexcusable that Apple doesn't do the same - while I understand and agree with the reasoning behind the existence of the capability, the fact that it's silently enabled is appalling.
[1] Yes, I know it's hardly news, but (I flatter myself that) I'm generally reasonably savvy, and if I only just found out about it, then there's probably someone else reading this thread who could benefit from it being mentioned. So I mention it.
Well, I'm running 9.3, and I never saw that message, or any other warnings about Exchange connections, while I had my phone connected to work email.
Is all this stuff only a concern when the device is enrolled via MDM? That seems improbable; the (several) sources I've found on the subject don't mention MDM in any context, but just warn that Exchange connection = remote wipe capability. Similarly, while I had my phone connected via Exchange, I visited the devices page in Outlook Web Access and saw that the "Wipe" option was enabled for the device.
It is news to me. I thought iOS simply didn't implement that functionality without being enrolled in MDM. With Android I knew about it and was able to build a custom firmware with that functionality disabled. I wonder if you can make an Exchange proxy that frees your iOS device via filtering.
