Apple Device Management

Book excerpt: Working effectively with Apple platforms at a corporate or business level includes not only infrastructure, but a mode of thinking that administrators have to adopt to find success. A mode of thinking that forces you to leave 30 years of IT dogma at the door. This book is a guide through how to integrate Apple products in your environment with a minimum of friction. Because the Apple ecosystem is not going away. You'll start by understanding where Apple, third-party software vendors, and the IT community is taking us. What is Mobile Device Management and how does it work under the hood. By understanding how MDM works, you will understand what needs to happen on your networks in order to allow for MDM, as well as the best way to give the least amount of access to the servers or services that’s necessary. You'll then look at management agents that do not include MDM, as well as when you will need to use an agent as opposed to when to use other options. Once you can install a management solution, you can deploy profiles on a device or you can deploy profiles on Macs using scripts. With Apple Device Management as your guide, you'll customize and package software for deployment and lock down devices so they’re completely secure. You’ll also work on getting standard QA environments built out, so you can test more effectively with less effort. Apple is forging their own path in IT. They trade spots with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft as the wealthiest company to ever exist. And they will not be constrained by 30 or more years of dogma in the IT industry. You can try to shoehorn Apple devices into outdated modes of device management, or you can embrace Apple’s stance on management with the help of this book. What You'll LearnDeploy profiles across devices effectively and securely Install apps remotely both from the app store and through custom solutions Work natively with Apple environments rather than retrofitting older IT solutions Who This Book Is For Mac administrators within organizations that want to integrate with the current Apple ecosystem, including Windows administrators learning how to use/manage Macs, mobile administrators working with iPhones and iPads, and mobile developers tasked with creating custom apps for internal, corporate distribution.