8 ms·

So just to make sure I'm reading this correctly (this is not my area of speciality so bear with me): This is Apple-hosted MDM, yes? I took a brief spin throug

by nlh 5y ago

So just to make sure I'm reading this correctly (this is not my area of speciality so bear with me): This is Apple-hosted MDM, yes? I took a brief spin through this world on a consulting project a few years ago and I found it SUPER weird that Apple didn't do this already. You had to do this weird dance between Apple Business Manager and the MDM solution (we ended up with SimpleMDM but looked at a bunch). I kept saying "Am I missing something? Why doesn't this service come directly from Apple?" and everyone was as puzzled about this as I was. So I guess they're finally closing the loop here.

encryptluks2 5y ago
They already have Fleetsmith. This is their response to Jumpcloud and what not who are offering lower per user plans, as fleetsmith was around $8/device/mo.
- mike_d 5y ago
  > This is their response to Jumpcloud and what not who are offering lower per user plans They couldn't care less about a few dollars. This is about heading off business adoption of Chromebooks, and "winning" small-medium businesses as primarily Mac shops before they become big-enterprise.
  - encryptluks2 5y ago
    I don't see how they really compete. Google has an array of business apps that far surpass anything Apple is offering here. They would need to partner with Microsoft in order to compete against Google.
roody15 5y ago
Agree I manage 500+ Apple devices and have been in disbelief that Apple recommends using JAMF to manage their own devices. I use profile manager included with the Server App of MacOS and it is functional but limited in scope. I have expressed for years frustration that Apple recommends using MDM/ profiles to manage their devices … and then doesn’t even really offer an enterprise version of the software. Google by contrast offers a great admin console to manage chromebook and google devices. Surprised apple has dragged their feet here for so long.
- PinguTS 5y ago
  For me this "offer" sounds like that the Sever app with the includes Profile Manager now basically becomes obsolete and will not anymore supported. That will become an expansive solution for small business like the one I manage with 15 employees.
  - radicaldreamer 5y ago
    This gives some services an opportunity to offer an even lower cost offering. The thing I worry about though is that this first-party solution will have "special" features that are not possible via MDM using private APIs or some special entitlements.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  We used JAMF at my last place of business, and it would occasionally kill apps with a 15 minute warning. Normally this was fine, but it really sucked to get JAMFed (as it came to be called) in the middle of a presentation. At my current company, we use something that destroys CPU and battery (unused 2019 high end MBP hangs sporadically for tens of seconds on any file system syscall, computer gets uncomfortably hot, battery lasts ~1hour on a full charge—happens to everyone I’ve talked to). Not sure what it’s called, but this falcond process always seems to be the culprit. I know nothing about MDM, but I would love it if Apple Business Essentials would be a viable alternative (hard to imagine Apple shipping such miserable software, anyway).
  - FiloSottile 5y ago
    falcond is CrowdStrike’s endpoint antivirus thingy, not device management. As usual, antivirus is an exercise in trading performance for increased attack surface (and compliance).
    - stefan_ 5y ago
      As history shows, antivirus is an exercise in trading performance and increased attack surface for checking a box.
xyzzy21 5y ago
Yes. But this is nothing new for even Apple. Just go an look at WWDCs for the last 10-15 years. There have been regular MDM sessions to talk about featured added to iOS and MacOS for this. This is also related to agreements made years ago between Apple and IBM to provide exactly this primarily because Apple has never wanted to compromise their customer connection (which in business is IT and NOT the end user), and IBM has needed the opportunity (despite IBM transitioning from Fail they are still not to a level of revenue expected for their stock price and heritage - so they are "hungry").
jordanbeiber 5y ago
Business use is a collateral win for apple. There’s a lot of effort that goes in to support and partner channels for enterprise offerings. Making servers seemed easy enough? Look where that ended up. It’s a completely different business.
- alexchamberlain 5y ago
  Is it? Apple is the go to solution for all media types (photography, film making, design, architecture). The alignment with Adobe products has existed longer than either was cool.
  - jordanbeiber 5y ago
    Yes, but that is a completely different setting than an enterprise one. Having supported large enterprises and pieces of the movie production industry I can tell you there’s a vast difference in how end-user IT is treated. The users you are referring to are power users that get to select their own tools, more akin to developers (at decent places at least). Currently a dev manager, about half of my dev team want to use mac. They can, with zero support from central IT. That’s not a choice our sales org have, for example.

by nlh 5y ago

encryptluks2 5y ago

They already have Fleetsmith. This is their response to Jumpcloud and what not who are offering lower per user plans, as fleetsmith was around $8/device/mo.

mike_d 5y ago
> This is their response to Jumpcloud and what not who are offering lower per user plans They couldn't care less about a few dollars. This is about heading off business adoption of Chromebooks, and "winning" small-medium businesses as primarily Mac shops before they become big-enterprise.
- encryptluks2 5y ago
  I don't see how they really compete. Google has an array of business apps that far surpass anything Apple is offering here. They would need to partner with Microsoft in order to compete against Google.

roody15 5y ago

Agree I manage 500+ Apple devices and have been in disbelief that Apple recommends using JAMF to manage their own devices. I use profile manager included with the Server App of MacOS and it is functional but limited in scope. I have expressed for years frustration that Apple recommends using MDM/ profiles to manage their devices … and then doesn’t even really offer an enterprise version of the software. Google by contrast offers a great admin console to manage chromebook and google devices. Surprised apple has dragged their feet here for so long.

PinguTS 5y ago
For me this "offer" sounds like that the Sever app with the includes Profile Manager now basically becomes obsolete and will not anymore supported. That will become an expansive solution for small business like the one I manage with 15 employees.
- radicaldreamer 5y ago
  This gives some services an opportunity to offer an even lower cost offering. The thing I worry about though is that this first-party solution will have "special" features that are not possible via MDM using private APIs or some special entitlements.
throwaway894345 5y ago
We used JAMF at my last place of business, and it would occasionally kill apps with a 15 minute warning. Normally this was fine, but it really sucked to get JAMFed (as it came to be called) in the middle of a presentation. At my current company, we use something that destroys CPU and battery (unused 2019 high end MBP hangs sporadically for tens of seconds on any file system syscall, computer gets uncomfortably hot, battery lasts ~1hour on a full charge—happens to everyone I’ve talked to). Not sure what it’s called, but this falcond process always seems to be the culprit. I know nothing about MDM, but I would love it if Apple Business Essentials would be a viable alternative (hard to imagine Apple shipping such miserable software, anyway).
- FiloSottile 5y ago
  falcond is CrowdStrike’s endpoint antivirus thingy, not device management. As usual, antivirus is an exercise in trading performance for increased attack surface (and compliance).
  - stefan_ 5y ago
    As history shows, antivirus is an exercise in trading performance and increased attack surface for checking a box.

xyzzy21 5y ago

Yes. But this is nothing new for even Apple. Just go an look at WWDCs for the last 10-15 years. There have been regular MDM sessions to talk about featured added to iOS and MacOS for this. This is also related to agreements made years ago between Apple and IBM to provide exactly this primarily because Apple has never wanted to compromise their customer connection (which in business is IT and NOT the end user), and IBM has needed the opportunity (despite IBM transitioning from Fail they are still not to a level of revenue expected for their stock price and heritage - so they are "hungry").

jordanbeiber 5y ago

Business use is a collateral win for apple. There’s a lot of effort that goes in to support and partner channels for enterprise offerings. Making servers seemed easy enough? Look where that ended up. It’s a completely different business.

alexchamberlain 5y ago
Is it? Apple is the go to solution for all media types (photography, film making, design, architecture). The alignment with Adobe products has existed longer than either was cool.
- jordanbeiber 5y ago
  Yes, but that is a completely different setting than an enterprise one. Having supported large enterprises and pieces of the movie production industry I can tell you there’s a vast difference in how end-user IT is treated. The users you are referring to are power users that get to select their own tools, more akin to developers (at decent places at least). Currently a dev manager, about half of my dev team want to use mac. They can, with zero support from central IT. That’s not a choice our sales org have, for example.