The march of Macs into the enterprise: Demand is on the increase
- Reference: 1649071810
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/04/04/apple_silicon_enterprise/
- Source link:
The theme of the event - with actual humans in the Brighton seafront venue on the south coast of England - was to highlight the creeping influx of Apple kit into enterprise spaces, and included research claiming that letting users pick their own gear made for, frankly, happier employees. Especially when that gear is emblazoned with an Apple logo.
Certainly, the last two years have seen more workers putting in the hours at home and wondering why their home hardware was frequently superior to what was foisted on them by employers. However, despite the many and varied [3]benefits of Apple silicon , particularly in the security arena, that same security can cause headaches for the unwary.
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A case in point is JumpCloud, a firm that specializes in patch management on Apple and other platforms (including Windows and Linux.)
[5]
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Apple product manager at JumpCloud, Tom Bridge, explained the problem: "In some ways," he said, "the Apple Silicon experience is actually a lot better for us. In some ways it's slightly worse."
"The most important thing that you need to recognise with Apple Silicon," he added, "is that to change the security settings of the system you have to have a disk owner's permission."
[7]
The upshot is that on a JumpCloud-managed system, the user will be gently nudged (with a soon to be configurable message) that, maybe it's time to get those updates done? An improvement on a basic password prompt "which no one should trust.. ever," said Bridge, "because you don't know who's providing that."
Apple, of course, is very keen to keep users up to date. Although the firm is less than clear with regard to when its operating systems drop out of support, as demonstrated by Bridge during his talk at the conference.
As such, the preferred path is to keep up to date with the latest and greatest of whatever your hardware supports; this is a challenge for IT administrators for sure, certainly ones used to the clarity of the Microsoft approach and the company's update engine.
[8]
That said, the security enabled by Apple Silicon is enviable. "There's no question that that system is entirely secure," said Bridge.
"You can take this [an Apple Silicon device] home, pull off the bottom plate, take out the flash drive, and what you're going to see is a bunch of random bits because all of the storage controller stuff is in the M1."
Microsoft will point to its Pluton tech or its insistence on [9]TPM for Windows 11, but the Apple approach is undoubtedly impressive, particularly considering its eventual application over the entire range as Intel-based Mac hardware falls by the wayside.
JumpCloud is not the only game in town as far as Apple device management is concerned.
The Register spoke to the newly minted Kandji EMEA general manager (and head of Sales) Richard Ainley, who told us "demand is definitely on the increase."
Kandji, an Apple-only device management platform, recently [10]commissioned a study that showed a surge in requests for Apple products, although few workers actually had much in the way of choice with regard to what IT gave them.
According to Kandji's figures, the numbers are particularly high for workers between the ages of 18 and 24. Nearly a third of employees considered getting some Apple equipment as a factor in their acceptance of a job offer – which is something to consider as The Great Resignation rumbles on.
While Kandji is Apple-only, the approach taken by JumpCloud and its ilk straddles both worlds as Administrators deal with mixed fleets and the inherent challenges posed by the additional security measures lurking with Apple Silicon systems.
"We find that our customers do best when they've got multiple platforms on JumpCloud," said Bridge. "Corporate choice programmes are a big deal, in terms of employees getting to choose what they bring to the job."
[11]Inside our three-month effort to attend Apple's iPhone 7 launch party
[12]Apple emits macOS, iOS, iPadOS patches for 'exploited' security bugs
[13]Wozniak startup to share orbital space junk data
[14]Apple's Mac Studio exposed: A spare storage slot and built-in RAM
[15]Apple notches up ninth €5m fine for ignoring nation's competition watchdog
"We see the research that comes out of all these things; not only are people 15 per cent less likely to leave their company when they get to choose what they work with, they were 15 per cent better on their performance reviews.
"For most of our people, if I can make them 15 per cent better by letting them choose what they brought to work every day? Whether that was one of these [a Mac] or a Windows machine or a Linux box? Hell yeah, I'll take that trade any day of the week."
We'd like to give you Apple's take on all this, but media were not permitted to be present when the company dispensed its pearls of wisdom.
And while none of the vendors sharing their thoughts on managing Apple devices in the enterprise said it, one can't help but wonder if the company's [16]"walled garden" approach and [17]secretive nature might also extend to its enterprise decision making.
No matter how much employees might clamor for tech gear covered with the company's famous branding. ®
* You can read about our prior attempts to attend consumer hardware launch events [18]here .
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2016/09/07/reg_effort_to_attend_iphone_7_launch/
[2] https://www.macad.uk/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/18/apple_macbook_pro/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YksWMcvhrCF-J7nx-h-IXgAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YksWMcvhrCF-J7nx-h-IXgAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YksWMcvhrCF-J7nx-h-IXgAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YksWMcvhrCF-J7nx-h-IXgAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YksWMcvhrCF-J7nx-h-IXgAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/10/parallels_17/
[10] https://blog.kandji.io/hybrid-workplace-boosts-demand-for-apple-devices-among-uk-business-users
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2016/09/07/reg_effort_to_attend_iphone_7_launch/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/31/apple_emergency_patches/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/28/steve_wozniak_privateer/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/24/ifixit_mac_studio/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/23/apple_dutch_fine/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/28/apple_apps_challenge/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/19/apple_secret_government_ipod/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2016/09/07/reg_effort_to_attend_iphone_7_launch/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Apple thanks you for your dis-service and the singular advantage it supplies
Nothing to do with the computing capability that sits in the box. ...... Binraider
It is just that sort possible misinformation which has Apple Silicon competitors playing second fiddle to new leading algorithms and walled garden applications/private and pirate operations, Binraider, for surely it is exceptional processing ability and utility which makes all the difference in the world to deliver worlds leading facilities ..... more exclusively virtually rendered presentations ‽
Apple don't care for the enterprise
Apple just don't care about the enterprise. They sell consumer kit that has to be integrated into an IT department the same way as a square peg is in a round hole (even if many of their products don't exactly carry consumer level price tags). Apple have had dabbles with the enterprise in the past, but seem to find it all a bit too much like hard work for the reward, and they then completely remove entire product lines a year or two later. There are many management solutions for those of us who have large Mac estates, but it is never easy, and Apple don't care when a patch then makes it even more work. It's just something you end up living with.
Re: Apple don't care for the enterprise
My last IOS upgrade broke IMAP functionality for me on the apple email client. The solution was to download another email client, but only after approximately 8 weeks when apple care support came back to me and told me that IMAP was business only functionality, and apple do not provide business support. Their products are consumer only.
Straight from the horses mouth.
Re: Apple don't care for the enterprise
AC, as while I'm gone from the company a good long while, the... manner... shall we say... of how I present the info would tie me to things...
So yeah: That answer is total, complete and utter BS.
They have a Business Support team - it used to be called AppleCare Enterprise Support. Now Business Support.
iOS supports IMAP - has done since iOS 2 or 3 (memory fails me on that particular point, right now.)
What iOS struggles with, mail wise, is strong authentication or MFA. (Obviously, iCloud being the exception as it's what they want the consumer to use).
Even now, a few jobs on from my time in company I tell people to use Outlook or other mail clients if they have an exchange server or an IMAP server with strong authentication.
What you in particular need to do, is call back AppleCare, with your case ID (you did get one, it's probably with the survey (which you should fill out negatively, their workers live and die by those and in this case a bad one is deserved)) and calmly and politely request to speak to their second level support about the case.
If they refuse, thank them, end the call and call back in ten minutes - should give whoever is on the case end enough time to fill in notes.
Then, when you call back, ask again to speak to a senior advisor - at that stage unless they've changed their procedures, you should get put through to one (wait times differ, obv...).
Then explain the issue and especially explain the information you've given here.
I'll be honest here: If I was ever caught giving this blatently incorrect info in my time with them, I would have (rightly) been hauled over the coals by team leads, their bosses, etc...
If you get nowhere, kick up a fuss and ask for Customer Relations...
Annoyed Ex-AC AC!
Re: Apple don't care for the enterprise
I got a feeling that enterprise specific stuff in the OS is about to become a thing of the past anyway. If you're safe in the internet on your consumer Mac, why bother applying any enterprise policies? Your companies intranet will get broken into anyways (says Microsoft) so you should always work like your computer will get broken into, in a way. Better to think like that! I'm sure there is still use for software policies but truth is Macs don't have the thick crust of bloatware that WinBoxes have in a big company and so, they are definitely less annoying using.
I'm surely wrong on many counts here, but there is a grain of reason in my gut feeling, isn't there?
Re: Apple don't care for the enterprise
If the assumption is that everything is broken, can I get a refund, please.
Finding software that doesn't require internet access to activate or open is, increasingly a losing battle; besides open source of course.
The bloat line is true. Running Windows even vanilla install natively on intel mac vs OSX there is a more than synthetic benchmark performance difference. But do corp-mandated bloatwares work on Mac, and if not, do you allow macs on your estate? (E.g. monstrosities like FireEye or Tanium).
There's a reason in many businesses, that the exec get their own network, domain, and independent services, rather than the monstrosity foisted upon everyone else.
Re: Apple don't care for the enterprise
The particular issues I've had (with our fleet of now about 60 iPads) are that there seem to be differences with what management features are available between enrolled (bought through an Apple dealer) devices and random ones you had to buy retail quickly because Apple's lead time was measured in months.
Also, there is/was no way to push files to a device/app remotely. It may be that some tools do better than others but last time I looked, the restrictions where down to Apple and whilst perfectly sensible in many ways, did not a properly remote-manageable platform make.
+1 for JumpCloud - single control panel, all 3 O/S. Awesome tech support (we had an issue with KDE, update in works).
The experience I have is that Macs work for longer (so the lifetime cost is lower) and they cost less to support (with the proviso that your IT infrastructure is set up to work in a Mac friendly manner, rather than a Windows friendly manner).
It used to be that if you were a business, and you needed to get business done, you used a PC (with DOS or Windows), if you were a creative you used a Mac and if you wanted to play games you used an Amiga.
In the 2020s it seems that you’re a business, and you need to get business done, you use a Mac, if you’re a creative you use Linux (with the caveat that we still use Macs for that use-case too, but Linux seems to be very well catered for in this field) and if you want to play games you use Windows.
Anticipated Asset Lifetime for a standard windows laptop - including warranty period - typically 36 months. (Max life is obvs longer, but we're talking AAL here).
Mac? I'd easy give them 72 months AAL. EoL determined by how far through the product lifecycle a given model is and how long support lasts. (Yes, people got burned by the short software life of the G5). Barely longer than the power supplies lasted.
Apple has been Enterprise ready for a while...
I've worked on deploying MacOS within work places.
After a lot of playing around with different vendors we found JAMF was the best product to use. It's like SCCM and Intune slapped together in a toolset that works really well with the control you could only dream you had on the Windows side of things.
Application packaging and deployment was soo much easier than Windows. I've used many tools over the year for different system on windows and they are all clunky compared to JAMF Composer although it does look they took the best parts of some of the products from other vendors.
JAMF integrated really well with Azure Conditional Access and even has a PKI connector for AD if you want to go down that route.
I'm not really an Apple fan but they had deployment from out of the box way before Autopilot and patching and managing your devices is easy.
We give our business users the choice of device and it's about 50/50 but the resources to manage Apple are very low. Hardware prices about the same compared to business Windows laptop. But you save a lot where you don't have to pay Microsoft each year just to use their Operating System.
I can see the appeal. Walled garden, relatively strong design, lower support costs (except for parts), at expense of greater hardware cost. Some difficulties will arise with AD interfacing, package management/deployment, permissions control & browser compatibility. AD in particular is a showstopper for any other platform to make inroads if we are honest.
But I imagine the main driver is because marketing-motivated people want "shiny". Nothing to do with the computing capability that sits in the box.
Having developed on Mac maybe 20 years ago, it was a much nicer experience at the time than Windows equivalents. Today, the platform is a bit of a pain because of the walled garden; and other development environments have "somewhat" caught up. The power is there under the hood of course; just locked down un-necessarily.
For me, the abstraction of everything behind layers upon layers of API's is such that "knowing" the API is way more important than knowing the language to get stuff done, or what platform you do it on. It wasn't long ago you could download DEV C++ and an SDL library and do fun stuff very easily. Today, just configuring a dev environment and API is an absolute pig; knowing what you need to do anything remotely useful is often half the battle. Co-incidentally, this is also why I have became such a fan of Python. Very easy to find libraries that do what you want for most subjects.
No current platform is any better or worse in regard this particular problem.