Apple @ Work

As someone who’s been managing iPads and Macs for a long time, I know there are a lot of “nooks” where settings are in various mobile device management systems. I’ve learned a lot of things through trial and error as the platforms have evolved, but that isn’t useful for new technicians. A new book was recently published that I feel is essential for anyone who works with Apple products in the enterprise. I just finished reading Apple Device Management: A Unified Theory of Managing Macs, iPads, iPhones, and AppleTVs, and I think it’s going to become the handbook for Apple device management.
Expand
Expanding
Close

When I first got started in education in October of 2009, the school I went to work for was still running Exchange 2003 for their email. Users who were using iPhones were using IMAP since native ActiveSync required Exchange 2007. One of the first things I planned to do was migrate everyone to “Google Apps for Your Domain” (what G Suite was previously known as) sooner than later.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Today is an important day for IT managers across the world. January 14th, 2020 is when Microsoft is ending support for Windows 7. I’ve seen much less angst about this transition than I saw for Windows XP. Windows 7 was an important OS as it helped Microsoft rebound form the disaster that was Windows Vista. It was initially released in 2009, so it’s had a long run even as Microsoft has transitioned to Windows 10. What does this mean for IT departments? It means change, and for Apple, change is an opportunity.
Expand
Expanding
Close

The Mac Pro was recently released to much fanfare after years of speculation about features, price, and design. While the pricing of the machine and its upgrade options have caused somewhat of an uproar, it certainly has its place in the IT world. After looking over all the information about the machine, watching reviews, and pondering its place in the enterprise, here’s a look at the Mac Pro from an enterprise perspective.
Expand
Expanding
Close

As we wrap up the decade, one trend has been clear: Apple’s enterprise growth. We heard at JNUC that all Fortune 500 companies are using Apple products. We’re seeing companies build enterprise security tools for macOS. We’re seeing from IBM that their employees who use macOS generally perform better at work as well. It’s been a great decade, and this week, I want to look at Apple’s top ten enterprise (and K-12) innovations.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Digital signage is everywhere now. From the low-cost pizza place to movie theatres to major sports arenas, it’s everywhere. Rarely do you see signage that has to be manually changed due to the cost of continual updates. For small businesses, digital signage has often been out of reach because of the high initial cost and complexity of deployment (server infrastructure, complicated software, expensive maintenance, etc.). Thanks to the Apple TV, its management APIs, and some cloud-based software, even the smallest retail stores can now have a digital signage solution.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple released Screen Time initially with iOS 12, and it has continued to refine it since. I’ve enjoyed using it as a parent with my children’s iPad as a way to automatically disable their devices after a certain amount of time. Since then, we’ve had various articles looking at how Apple could improve Screen Time. Ben Lovejoy argued that a Screen Time API would allow third-party developers to expand beyond what Apple has built. I mentioned last December that I would love to see some enhanced Safari filtering options, iMessage history, and more. After I attended JNUC 2019, I started wondering what Screen Time for the enterprise might look like if Apple released it.
Expand
Expanding
Close

One of the most significant changes in enterprise IT over the last decade has been with Software as a Service (SaaS) going from the minority to the expectation. Thanks to frequent (and free) updates of macOS and iOS, developers are having to spend considerable resources on maintaining their apps on top of trying to grow their feature sets. Instead of spending $1500 every time a new version of Adobe Creative Cloud comes out, organizations can have a recurring charge for the number of seats they need and easily monitor expenses. Setapp, the popular all you can eat service for apps, has recently released an enterprise version for businesses that is called Setapp for Teams.
Expand
Expanding
Close

IT professionals are known for having all of the latest technology products, so they can be hard to buy for during the Christmas season. In my Apple @ Work post for this week, I want to run through a handful of products that would make for an excellent Christmas gift ideas for the IT professionals in your life.
Expand
Expanding
Close

I’ve been interested in what Apple is doing in the health industry for a while now. I love reading stories about people using Apple Watch to get healthy, prevent accidents, and more. While I was at JNUC this past week, I got to spend some time with Lindsey Koshansky from Locus Health to hear how they are using the iPad in the healthcare field. They are heavily invested in the Apple and Jamf ecosystem, so I was eager to hear more about what they’re doing.
Expand
Expanding
Close

I’ve heard for years that you shouldn’t use your Mac with administrator privileges. I 100% agree with that statement, and I still use my Mac with administrator privileges. But to be perfectly honest, it’s just sort of inconvenient. In the enterprise, running as an administrator can certainly be against company policy, and depending on what environment you operate in, you may be out of compliance with industry regulations or customer contracts. But thanks to an open source tool (Privileges for macOS) from SAP, Apple focused enterprises now have a great solution. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

At JNUC 2019, Jeremy Butcher from Apple Product Marketing came on stage to give the Apple community an update on the state of Apple’s enterprise focus. He highlighted that all Fortune 500 companies are using Apple products.
Expand
Expanding
Close

If you have become an Apple fan in the past decade or so, you are used to yearly operating system updates for free. If you have been a Mac user longer than that, you remember actually paying for OS updates every 18 months or so. I know Halloween is coming up, so I’ll inform you of something even scarier: we had to wait in a line to buy a new version of OS X on a CD. While we’ve gotten used to free OS updates as consumers, it has been a big help to Apple in the enterprise. This week, I want to explain why frequent and free OS updates are a big help for Apple’s growth in the enterprise.
Expand
Expanding
Close

If you look at Apple’s device lineup over the past few years, the vast majority of them do not have ethernet ports. Wi-Fi has grown across retail centers, sports stadium, universities, K–12 schools, and business centers. One of the major drivers behind the growth of Wi-Fi is Apple’s products.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Spike, the world’s first conversational email app that helps professionals and teams spend less time on email, and more on getting things done.

I started working in a corporate environment in 2004. Since then, I’ve watched enterprise communications dramatically change. Back then, we relied on Outlook, desk phones, and the occasional cell phone call. Today, the landscape looks completely different. We still have e-mail, but we’ve also added tools like iMessage, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and more. What’s ironic is that I feel overwhelmed at times. I joked with my wife that working in 2019 sometimes feels like keeping inboxes empty. Let’s take a look at the current state of enterprise communication tools.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Spike, the world’s first conversational email app that helps professionals and teams spend less time on email, and more on getting things done.

In the enterprise IT market, eliminating variables is an essential part of the job when it comes to troubleshooting. The more variables you have, the more opportunities you have for things to go wrong. By eliminating variables on your network and with your end-user devices, you make it easier to troubleshoot when issues arise. Variables especially cause issues when it comes to major OS upgrades as you have more testing to do. The longer I’ve been in enterprise IT, the more I’ve realized that Apple’s tightly controlled system of hardware and software integration is exactly what IT departments crave. Apple controls every bit of driver updates as part of their OS upgrades, and that helps IT departments be more efficient. While IT departments used to be all in on Windows, we are starting to see that tide shift. Thanks to upgrades in the ability to manage Apple products in mass, and the simplicity of the Apple hardware and software configuration, IT departments are now seeing the value of Apple in the enterprise. Instead of banning Apple devices, IT departments are now recommending them.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Spike, the world’s first conversational email app that helps professionals and teams spend less time on email, and more on getting things done.

One of the common things I hear about Mobile Device Management solutions from my technology-focused friends is they hate when their company IT departments “suck” their devices into the management system the organization chooses. For those that love to tinker, set up, and manage their own devices, having them “managed” may seem like big brother is watching. Thankfully, Apple has clear APIs for how their devices interact with MDMs, so end users can rest assured their IT department doesn’t have access to everything on their devices. If you’re wondering if your IT department can read your iMessages, you’ve come to the right place.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Spike, the world’s first conversational email app that helps professionals and teams spend less time on email, and more on getting things done.

I still remember when iMessage first launched with iOS 5 in 2011 and OS X Mountain Lion in 2012. In my office, we had (and still have) terrible cell service. Since iMessage worked on Wi-Fi, I could finally send and receive “text messages” with ease. I don’t think we’ve given Apple enough credit for creating such a popular service across their ecosystem. By 2016, Apple announced that 200,000 messages were being sent every second. iMessage, despite its faults, is an excellent service. It provides fast communication to other iOS users and syncs across all of your devices. Over time, I’ve ended up in more group texts than I would have ever imagined. These aren’t just friends who are sending GIFs back and forth. These group messages are various subgroups at my office, where people are communicating about work. The problem with this situation is that iMessage was not built for internal business communications, but Apple could evolve its features to help with this use case in the future. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple products used to be something IT departments hated to deploy, but that mindset has certainly shifted in recent years. A lot has changed to get us to this point, but one thing was the key enabler to Apple’s growth in the enterprise: web applications. Now, you are probably thinking, why have web apps led to Apple’s growth in the enterprise? Your natural thought process would be that if an organization runs a lot of web applications, they’d want to deploy the cheapest hardware possible. They’d likely be looking at Chromebooks or inexpensive PC laptops. On the other hand, as technology has become more personal, employees have started to demand the tools they feel comfortable with. Thanks to Apple’s strong presence on mobile (iPad and iPhone), users want that same simplicity on their desktop workstations. So why have web applications enabled the adoption of macOS in the enterprise? Let’s look at the factors for how web apps on the Mac led to its enterprise growth.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Jamf, the standard in Apple management. Learn more at Jamf.com/9to5mac.

Configuration profiles are a huge part of the mobile device management experience when working with the iPad and the Mac. They are the “building blocks” of how the iPad and Mac know what restrictions or settings to have in place. If you can get the hang of this aspect of using an MDM, you’ll become a master in no time. If you are looking for how to restore a deleted Jamf profile in order to remove it, I’ll cover that at the bottom.
Expand
Expanding
Close