It seems like every article I’ve written in the past few months has started regarding COVID–19. While I hate that I keep mentioning it, it is informing a lot of how I am thinking about business operations going forward. I recently did a deep dive into the Addigy mobile device management system, and I think it could be beneficial for companies moving to permanent work from home.
About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers has been managing an enterprise IT network since 2009. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, 100s of Macs, and 100s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments.
Apple’s decision to build its mobile device management setup as APIs that any company can talk to has been beneficial for customers. Just this week, I was switching from Jamf Pro to Jamf School. They are separate platforms, so I had to unhook my app licenses from one system and move it to another. The beauty is that all of this happens through Apple School Manager. All I have to do is upload a new token. Apple’s design has helped customers know that they can easily shop around for new MDM providers if they aren’t satisfied.
One of the challenges that I’ve found when working from home is doing remote support. While in school, I don’t worry about remote access as I can physically walk to all of our machines within a few minutes, so it’s one less application to install, manage, and setup. An app like Splashtop SOS is incredibly useful, but it’s another solution to install on each machine. Remote support is essential for work from home, though. When users run into software issues, it’s going to be a challenge fixing them via chat or email. A lot of the time, it’s faster to take control of a machine. While I was doing a deep dive into Addigy, I discovered they have a feature called LiveDesktop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZeGfB86ca0
LiveDesktop provides an unrivaled experience for remotely controlling macOS devices. Unlike third-party tools that install a separate application to control the device, LiveDesktop uses the Remote Management framework built into macOS. Then, LiveDesktop securely tunnels traffic from that service to a unique URL you can access from Addigy.
LiveDesktop requires no additional software installations, no additional local user creations, and no Privacy Preferences to connect to macOS devices.
By using Addigy’s MDM solution, you’ll get built-in remote access to all of the Macs in your fleet without an additional subscription to a third-party solution. If your organization is looking to move to work from home permanently, remote access to your fleet is something you should consider, and Addigy over its built into its MDM.
LiveDesktop uses the built-in remote management setup in macOS, so you won’t have to worry about future versions of macOS breaking the functionality. If a user is already logged into a machine, they’ll get the built-in Screen Sharing alerts from macOS, notifying someone is attempting to control their computer remotely and to approve or deny.
Addigy LiveDesktop wrap-up
I am impressed with how well Addigy LiveDesktop works in practice. For organizations moving permanently to work from home, figuring out a remote access solution for IT support is going to be necessary. If you are looking to combine your MDM with remote support, Addigy would be a great choice.
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