Apple @ Work is solely dropped at you by Mosyle, the one Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the one resolution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all of the options essential to seamlessly and robotically deploy, handle & shield Apple gadgets at work. Over 45,000 organizations belief Mosyle to make tens of millions of Apple gadgets work-ready with no effort and at an reasonably priced value. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL at the moment and perceive why Mosyle is the whole lot you’ll want to work with Apple.
It’s time to retire the concept that “MDM is all you want.” We’re previous that with Apple within the enterprise. What we’d like now could be a shift in mindset. Pushing configuration profiles and deploying apps to the Mac is only a piece of a bigger puzzle to creating Apple one of the best endpoint within the enterprise. The actual work occurs while you begin fascinated about the whole service portfolio round Apple gadgets. That’s the place success with Apple within the enterprise occurs.
About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers managed an enterprise IT community from 2009 to 2021. Via his expertise deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a cell gadget administration system, enterprise grade Wi-Fi, 1000s of Macs, and 1000s of iPads, Bradley will spotlight methods through which Apple IT managers deploy Apple gadgets, construct networks to help them, prepare customers, tales from the trenches of IT administration, and methods Apple might enhance its merchandise for IT departments.
To start with, I’d wish to retire the time period MDM (cell gadget administration). Machine administration is a requirement for Apple at work, however checking the MDM field and considering your deployment is finished doesn’t work. Actual Apple deployments have to suppose larger. It’s not nearly managing a tool. It’s about id. It’s about app supply. It’s about patching, entry, compliance, and safety. That’s the portfolio Apple IT must be constructing. I imagine Apple acknowledges this, and based mostly on WWDC25, I believe that’s precisely what their imaginative and prescient is signaling.
Here’s what that appears like.
Identification is the place to begin
If customers can’t check in simply and securely, nothing else issues. Managed Apple Accounts and Platform SSO are now not non-compulsory. They’re foundational. Apple is placing id on the heart of the Mac deployment expertise, and IT must observe that lead.
With Platform SSO now constructed into Setup Assistant, customers can authenticate with their id supplier instantly. No extra native account first, then shifting to SSO later. All the circulate is streamlined from the beginning. As soon as the consumer indicators in, the Mac is robotically enrolled, the account is created, and their password is synced with the id supplier or saved securely utilizing the Safe Enclave. It’s easy. It’s safe. And it’s designed for scale.
At WWDC25, Apple launched Authenticated Visitor Mode for shared Macs. This mode brings the identical trendy login expertise to shared-use environments like healthcare, retail, and labs. Customers can log in with cloud-based credentials and get full entry to apps and providers with out leaving any information behind. After they log off, the session is wiped, and nothing stays round. Apple even took it a step additional with Faucet to Login. By provisioning entry keys in Apple Pockets, customers can faucet their iPhone or Apple Watch on a Mac to check in immediately.
Native-only accounts are now not real looking or scalable. Apple understands that actuality and offers IT groups the instruments to make identity-based deployments customary throughout each setting. Identification needs to be the place to begin, whether or not it’s a MacBook in a one-to-one setup or a shared iMac at a nurses’ station.
Identification must go deeper than login
There are keys, certificates, Wi-Fi credentials, app secrets and techniques, and the whole lot in between. A few of it matches into gadget administration. A number of it doesn’t. With issues just like the ManagedApp framework and Safe Enclave help, Apple is giving IT the instruments to handle credentials in a safe and scalable means. IT simply wants to begin utilizing them.
Declarative is the longer term
At WWDC25, Apple made it clear. The transfer to DDM isn’t just coming. It’s already right here. Declarative administration is now supported throughout each main platform, together with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Imaginative and prescient Professional, and even Apple TV. Utilizing declarative configuration, now you can set software program replace schedules, defer OS variations, outline compliance insurance policies, and handle Safari settings. It’s also possible to ship apps and packages, pin particular variations, and get real-time standing updates to trace installs and failures. It’s a main enchancment over the outdated workflow.
Apple is phasing out legacy MDM help. Which means older, command-based methods are on borrowed time. Declarative is the one route Apple is investing in going ahead.
In case your gadget administration vendor is just not totally supporting declarative, that could be a drawback. If you’re not utilizing declarative but, now could be the time to begin. In case your present vendor is just not prepared, it’s time to look elsewhere.
Too many distributors nonetheless deal with macOS like it’s Linux with some UI adjustments. That’s not adequate. Apple doesn’t work like Linux, and it shouldn’t be handled that means. Safety tooling for the Mac must be purpose-built. It must help System Extensions, use Endpoint Safety APIs correctly, and perceive how TCC works. In case your EDR vendor doesn’t have an actual macOS engineering crew, your information is just not as protected as you suppose. Apple must be a first-class citizen along with your EDR vendor, not an afterthought.
One other space that usually will get neglected is log assortment. Apple IT groups want visibility into what is occurring on the Mac, identical to they might with another endpoint. Nonetheless, conventional assortment strategies don’t all the time work effectively with Apple platforms. Telemetry information on macOS is rising quick, however the instruments for amassing and processing that information haven’t stored up. Whether or not it’s safety, compliance, or efficiency monitoring, you want a plan for amassing, shifting, and analyzing that information reliably for Apple’s ecosystem and that additionally matches into IT’s present telemetry providers environments.
Safety begins with visibility, and visibility on Apple gadgets takes actual funding out of your vendor. They most likely are in case your present instruments really feel bolted on to the Mac.
Entry administration is essential
At WWDC25, Apple highlighted id and entry as foundational to profitable with Apple at work. AccessMule, an SMB-focused device constructed to deal with one of the vital widespread entry challenges organizations face (particularly in small and midsize environments). AccessMule automates onboarding and offboarding, tracks who has entry to which instruments, encrypts password sharing, and even helps shared MFA workflows.
It is a excellent instance of what I’m speaking about right here. It has nothing to do with gadget administration, however it’s a key a part of success with Apple at work.
It’s larger than gadget administration now
Machine administration nonetheless performs a task with Apple and IT, however success with Apple within the enterprise is concerning the full expertise, protecting a a lot bigger imaginative and prescient. From login to logout, entry administration, each a part of the stack must be designed to work with Apple the best way Apple expects and giving what IT wants. That features id, app supply, replace management, patch administration safety posture, and credential administration.
Apple is constructing the items. It’s as much as IT to place them collectively into one thing that works. What’s wanted for IT and an Apple Companies System/Answer that enables IT to construct a set of providers and options just like how IT options on Home windows are constructed. To succeed with Macs at scale, cease fascinated about gadget administration because the end line. It’s simply step one. Every little thing else is determined by what you construct round it. And let’s retire the time period MDM whereas we’re at it.
Apple @ Work is solely dropped at you by Mosyle, the one Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the one resolution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all of the options essential to seamlessly and robotically deploy, handle & shield Apple gadgets at work. Over 45,000 organizations belief Mosyle to make tens of millions of Apple gadgets work-ready with no effort and at an reasonably priced value. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL at the moment and perceive why Mosyle is the whole lot you’ll want to work with Apple.
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