Andy Reitz (blog)

 

 

MWSF2011 — iOS management roundup

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Apparently, Apple added some decent enterprise hooks in iOS 4. As a result, I saw three different vendors that basically offered the same product — the ability to push provisioning profiles down to iOS devices, and do some basic asset tracking and management:

SOTI.net — Windows/IIS based software for managing device profiles for iOS. Browser based configuration utility, one-time charge based upon # of devices.

AirWatch — Saas based (or appliance). $2 - $3/iOS device/month. Much of the same features as SOTI.

Absolute Software — does Windows, Mac, and iOS management. Server product runs on Windows or Mac. license is per node -- $60/mac (perpetual), like $20/year subscription. Has all of the standard iOS management features. Claim they can just remove corporate data on non-corporate phones, if you are careful. Sounds similar to JAMF.

Enterprise Desktop Alliance

JAMF — they have the same iOS management features as everyone else, available in the latest version (version 8) of Casper Suite. Requires some per-device license. But web UI works great on iPad, and I got some more color on non-corporate owned devices. When device is removed from management, all settings that were applied via JSS are removed from phone. Thus personal email account won't be touched.


Some more miscellaneous JAMF notes:

Automating the Office 2011 install — Recommended a web site, OfficeforMacHelp.com, which has example scripts and stuff. Recommend running a script to remove Office 2008, then can drop the office mpkg in there to install, and run another script to provision Outlook.

API — they have an SDK, which could be used to write an application that presents a single customer's data in the MSP model.

Version that does MSP model is delayed, no ETA. They decided to focus on iOS for version 8 instead.