Way too expensive. Other MDM solutions are all cheaper and provide enough of the benefits needed. Backup needs to be done to an independent cloud storage solution instead of Apple in most cases since it's better to have a single solution that works for PCs and Macs.
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Apple Announces 'Business Essentials' Service for Small Businesses
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"Everyone else does a bad job too" is no excuse. Apple charges premium prices so we should get premium software quality.
The benefit of using Microsoft or Google for this purpose is that you're not entirely dependent on Apple hardware in perpetuity and you are more likely to be able to collaborate with those outside of your company/organisation.
We use primarily iPhones, but also some Android phones, and inexpensive laptops for most of us with some Macs where it makes sense. Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Teams runs happily everywhere.
Why would any company other than a really small 5 persons shop choose an Apple productivity suite when a different hardware choice in the future means changing everything.
I personally think Apple's aversion to provide most of its software anywhere but the Mac will forever prevent it from taking a bigger share of that market. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, maybe overall it's a better business decision for them, but there's trade offs.
Apple needs to make up its mind about business. We were an all Apple device business for decades. Then they burned us with Aperture making us scramble. Then they got rid of airport making us look for alternate solutions for that. Then service after service got removed from OSX server making us once again scramble for solutions. Their support answer was "you should be using linux anyways". Gee thanks. Now we use linux and are slowly introducing more and more non Apple devices. Thanks for the support advice Apple.
We are exactly the type of small business this new service is for (ie. want to concentrate on our work rather than IT). For us its too late. I can no longer trust Apple to not dump things on a dime leaving us scrambling. Maybe other newer companies that haven't been burned so much can make this service a success but Apple needs to make up their minds and stick with it for the long haul whether it makes money or not. Once you screw over an industry its very hard to get them back. Although Apple may have lost money on OSX server, it sold tons of devices not directly associated with it. Like I said, we are now buying other manufacturers devices solely based on the above Apple decisions.
We are exactly the type of small business this new service is for (ie. want to concentrate on our work rather than IT). For us its too late. I can no longer trust Apple to not dump things on a dime leaving us scrambling. Maybe other newer companies that haven't been burned so much can make this service a success but Apple needs to make up their minds and stick with it for the long haul whether it makes money or not. Once you screw over an industry its very hard to get them back. Although Apple may have lost money on OSX server, it sold tons of devices not directly associated with it. Like I said, we are now buying other manufacturers devices solely based on the above Apple decisions.
Who's in charge of software? I remember a few years back the guy who was in charge allowed access to a Mac via root on first install. Obsvi they got rid of him...right? The new guy has the jelly scroll thing in iOS 15, but he's new...right?
From the looks of it, Profile Manager and ABM had a baby. Fleetsmith technologies are blended up into that too.
I watched the video, zero mention of email. I guess if you are ALL in on Apple and only need to collaborate with other iWork users this is "OK".
Without email then I would suggest Office 365, especially with the next OneDrive update for Mac with Known Folder support. My company uses Intune for our Mac's and it works really well. You can lock a Mac down pretty hard. Push apps etc.
Microsoft seems to be striving to make even worse software than Apple right now. Hopefully both of them can improve their software quality substantially.
That's different. That's a software solution trying to become established on a hardware platform that they don't control. Apple's advantage is that they own the hardware platform, at every level, which gives them a massive competitive advantage at the enterprise software and services level. I can guarantee that no third party company will be able to compete with Apple's software and services when it comes to security and device management given that Apple can tightly integrate features directly at the silicon level. Owning the entire vertical stack is key for something like this. I would expect it to be such an advantage that competitors will use the legal system to sue for antitrust violations.
I'm not sure what industry you work in but if you're talking about enterprise penetration, in terms of Macbook hardware units, it's already dominant at all the largest tech firms along with a few other industries. Where Apple will have more difficulty is at old stagnant and less profitable companies where cost is the only deciding factor. Lenovo and Dell are happy to give away units at close to zero margin to gain market share so Apple won't compete in that segment. It's the same strategy with iPhones which make up 15% of global share by unit but 80% of all smartphone profits.
All I want for my business is to have separate apple IDs yet share the photos library completely so that all of our iPads can take photos and be in sync
Apples software and services when mentioned with security is reason enough it won't ever get traction because you know, they have been hitting THAT out of the ballpark recently.
As with any large company not all orgs and teams are equal in talent and resources so you can't look at a company as a single entity. Apple's strength and talent is in hardware and silicon. Where they are relatively weaker, as compared with other big tech firms, is software, services, and AI where where Google is more talented. However, Apple has been using the hardware and silicon team as leverage. Sometimes it's hopelessly out of balance as with the iPad Pro but sometimes it's enough as with the new M1 mac products. My contention is that Apple will use the deployment of apple silicon in enterprise as a competitive advantage. Given that this only started 12 months ago and the enterprise service push is even more recent we'll need to give it some time to see the results.
You talk if Apple really was caring for Pros and businesses ? That part of it died years and years ago...
After several attempts into getting SMB customers to use managed Apple devices, this seems like the first "real deal" attempt:
Offer similar options as Google / Microsoft, i.e. device management form a single console.
What we had and was discontinued or some other way "killed off / made useless":
Once MDMs came along, and Apple introduced VPP and DEP, Apple device management started to stabilise. Later Apple School / Business Manager arrived including Managed Apple ID's. But these did NOT include device management...
Now though, it does seem that the Fleetsmith acquisition will (finally, what everyone was expecting) bring device management into ABM (and later ASM surely...).
I do think that "classic" MDM's and Apple's Business Essentials will offer different options, maybe using both can help many businesses.
Offer similar options as Google / Microsoft, i.e. device management form a single console.
What we had and was discontinued or some other way "killed off / made useless":
- Apple Xserve
- Apple Xserve RAID
- Mac OS X Server (incl. DNS / DHCP / OD / etc. - could run your whole SMB off it)
- Server.app
- Profile Manager
Once MDMs came along, and Apple introduced VPP and DEP, Apple device management started to stabilise. Later Apple School / Business Manager arrived including Managed Apple ID's. But these did NOT include device management...
Now though, it does seem that the Fleetsmith acquisition will (finally, what everyone was expecting) bring device management into ABM (and later ASM surely...).
I do think that "classic" MDM's and Apple's Business Essentials will offer different options, maybe using both can help many businesses.
The return of the MBP gives me some hope.
There was a time when software was genius but hardware was lacking, it's becoming the other way around.
iOS is still genius, iPadOS lacks Pro features and macOS feels kind of stuck despite all the changes in the last 3-4 years. The team is clearly smaller in the macOS department and software team.
Like many other corporations, Apple is relying on contractors for software development. The projects are managed by Apple employees and the actual work is done by contracting firms.
This is intended to cut costs, but the result is always the same. Contractors have little interest in quality. They focus on getting projects completed as quickly as possible. This is a problem that is in no way unique to Apple.
To paraphrase you "I don't know what industry you work in, but you obviously don't know how Mac Management works".
macOS and iOS management is defined by the MDM protocol developed by Apple. Nothing in the documentation I read yesterday gives me any belief that Apple is using anything other than the MDM protocol for management. If Apple really is using undocumented MDM commands, then yes, the competitors should be mad. Apple should make sure all companies have the same ability to manage devices. In fact, looking at the documentation for ABE, Apple does not even implement all its own MDM protocol. I could not find any reference to managing FileVault. That is a huge oversight.
As far as Mac's in the Enterprise, aside from a few huge examples (IBM and SAP being the most famous), Macs still have a hard fight to break into the Enterprise. One of the biggest issues is that Apple doesn't listen those of us who manage Macs. Apple focuses on the consumer (which is great), but often forgets that companies need to manage the computer. That is not to say that Apple isn't trying, I meet regularly with my Apple sales team and engineers. But they still have a long way to go.
Looks promising for the small organization where I work. 10 Macs, as the unofficial IT guy, I could use the help.
I wonder how this will work for folks like me who like to give a bit of autonomy to employees. I maintain things, but everyone uses their work-supplied Macs as if it were their personal Mac. I do, and I would pay for my own Mac before letting my work drive what is on my computer. For a place like ours, anyone have an idea how (or even IF) that would work? Would this service benefit us at all? Hopeful the answer is yes...
I wonder how this will work for folks like me who like to give a bit of autonomy to employees. I maintain things, but everyone uses their work-supplied Macs as if it were their personal Mac. I do, and I would pay for my own Mac before letting my work drive what is on my computer. For a place like ours, anyone have an idea how (or even IF) that would work? Would this service benefit us at all? Hopeful the answer is yes...
It would probably work. You can choose to manage or not manage many of the settings on the computer. There appears to be away to enroll "non-ADE" enrolled computers. The question is, if you don't want to manage a user's computer (and will allow them to BYOD), why do you even want to manage the computer?
This like most Apple hobbies, start small. At 500 or less users this is just testing the waters to see what patterns emerge and learn (hopefully) from them. Then they will expand over time. For me though, I've been a Jamf practitioner for over a decade now and this is not a competitor to Jamf Pro. On the other hand it is a bit of a shot across the bow of JamfNow aimed more at small biz. Still for me the ability to run custom scripts and packages is not negotiable and ABE looks to be a pure MDM plus App Store (and Custom App which require review), which is just too limiting for power admins that need to do more than push an app and dust their hands. Reality usually involves edge cases that need help and as a business grows so do those "rare" edge cases where a custom scripts, etc. are needed. But this is a start, we'll see if it spurs competitors to step up their game.