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Wow. Apple seems to have gone out of their way over the years to not provide their own actual MDM service, or even a server for people to host themselves. "We

Wow. Apple seems to have gone out of their way over the years to not provide their own actual MDM service, or even a server for people to host themselves. "We look forward to continuing to deliver Fleetsmith to existing and new customers." sure sounds like the service will stay open, AKA this is not Apple's usual acqui-hire and shut down the company.

scarface74 6y ago
Apple has offered an MDM service for years. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement
- andreasley 6y ago
  While Apple has been publishing their MDM Protocol Reference, the only implementation they ever offered was "Profile Manager", a limited, unreliable service that only runs on macOS Server. Apple never provided MDM as a cloud service.
  - wcfields 6y ago
    Profile Manager works great* * , ask me how I know. * Until your hidden-from-view postgre SQL db gets corrupted and stops working and all the solutions on the Apple support forums are "couldn't find a fix so just flatten and reinstalled... now moving to Jamf", so every thing in PM is treated like a faberge egg and you're using a kludge of package managers and such to fill in the gaps. Your 2012 Mac Mini Server in a Sonnet Rackmac needs it's dying 5400rpm HDD switched over to SSDs, which, now you're also using 3rd party hardware + SAS PCIe controllers to connect to a RAID / Tape Drive to keep this thing going. * Every OS X update is held off because you're trigger shy of the last time it broke OS X Server and your 3rd party SAS controller drivers. Yet another server to manage on site and/or spend too much $$$ on a boutique "Mac Stadium" data center which is essentially a colo'd Mac Mini.
    - wpm 6y ago
      Beeg oof. I feel your pain. Jamf Pro is more like Jank Pro but fuck me, it's a million times better than PM. First time I met our now current Apple Systems Engineer for my region, he laughed when I said I had used PM in the past and said "Uhhh, yeah, don't use Profile Manager in production."
- samcat116 6y ago
  Apple doesn’t have an MDM. They create the base MDM protocol for iOS/macOS/tvOS that other vendors make systems on top of. You used to do some basic stuff using OS X Server and configuration profiles, however much of this is gone now and you really need a third party MDM to manage Apple devices in any meaningful way.
- chmars 6y ago
  Yep … but someone had (and has) to run the necessary services …
FireBeyond 6y ago
Except they completely disabled the app catalog this morning, without notice. That's fun.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
enos_feedler 6y ago
I also see this as more of a TestFlight style acquisition for product integration
chmars 6y ago
Most of the features are gone, i.e., support for third-party applications …
gregoriol 6y ago
Apple bought TestFlight some time ago, which ended up not as a standalone service but as an integrated service; this will probably happen to Fleetsmith too: it'll close as a standalone, be rewritten into something Apple likes, and be marketed as an Apple solution for MDM.

scarface74 6y ago

Apple has offered an MDM service for years. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement

andreasley 6y ago
While Apple has been publishing their MDM Protocol Reference, the only implementation they ever offered was "Profile Manager", a limited, unreliable service that only runs on macOS Server. Apple never provided MDM as a cloud service.
- wcfields 6y ago
  Profile Manager works great* * , ask me how I know. * Until your hidden-from-view postgre SQL db gets corrupted and stops working and all the solutions on the Apple support forums are "couldn't find a fix so just flatten and reinstalled... now moving to Jamf", so every thing in PM is treated like a faberge egg and you're using a kludge of package managers and such to fill in the gaps. Your 2012 Mac Mini Server in a Sonnet Rackmac needs it's dying 5400rpm HDD switched over to SSDs, which, now you're also using 3rd party hardware + SAS PCIe controllers to connect to a RAID / Tape Drive to keep this thing going. * Every OS X update is held off because you're trigger shy of the last time it broke OS X Server and your 3rd party SAS controller drivers. Yet another server to manage on site and/or spend too much $$$ on a boutique "Mac Stadium" data center which is essentially a colo'd Mac Mini.
  - wpm 6y ago
    Beeg oof. I feel your pain. Jamf Pro is more like Jank Pro but fuck me, it's a million times better than PM. First time I met our now current Apple Systems Engineer for my region, he laughed when I said I had used PM in the past and said "Uhhh, yeah, don't use Profile Manager in production."
samcat116 6y ago
Apple doesn’t have an MDM. They create the base MDM protocol for iOS/macOS/tvOS that other vendors make systems on top of. You used to do some basic stuff using OS X Server and configuration profiles, however much of this is gone now and you really need a third party MDM to manage Apple devices in any meaningful way.
chmars 6y ago
Yep … but someone had (and has) to run the necessary services …

FireBeyond 6y ago

Except they completely disabled the app catalog this morning, without notice. That's fun.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

enos_feedler 6y ago

I also see this as more of a TestFlight style acquisition for product integration

chmars 6y ago

Most of the features are gone, i.e., support for third-party applications …

gregoriol 6y ago

Apple bought TestFlight some time ago, which ended up not as a standalone service but as an integrated service; this will probably happen to Fleetsmith too: it'll close as a standalone, be rewritten into something Apple likes, and be marketed as an Apple solution for MDM.