Home & business for mac how to#
Home & business for mac mac os#
Home & business for mac Pc#
Home & business for mac series#

Another option is to make use of additional enterprise-oriented solutions from Apple, such as OS X Server, Apple's Device Enrollment Program (DEP), and its Volume Purchase Program (VPP), to streamline and enhance various parts of the process. Although effective, this can be limiting when managing a large-scale Mac deployment. Using the tools built into OS X itself is the most basic option. There are multiple tools and mechanisms to accomplish the various tasks related to Mac management.

Home & business for mac series#

The following two articles in this series will look at understanding policy options for managed Macs and deployment methods, respectively. This article will look at the first of these areas: integrating Macs with enterprise systems.

Home & business for mac Pc#

Much as with PC management, these areas combine into an overall workflow, though they tend to be somewhat more discrete processes.

Home & business for mac how to#

Understanding how to efficiently deploy and update Macs and the apps and configurations they run.

Applying policies to manage Macs similar to the way Group Policies manage Windows PCs.

Integrating Macs with key enterprise systems such as Active Directory and Exchange.

Mac management in the enterprise consists of three major components: Those skills go well beyond simply setting up and troubleshooting individual Macs, just as the skills of Windows systems administrators go well beyond those of help desk agents. Scaling Mac deployments, however, means being able to automate many processes, particularly around implementation and configuration, and knowing how to apply management policies for a large number of Macs across an organization.

Home & business for mac mac os#

Help desk and support staff will need to get up to speed on supporting Mac OS and its hardware, but that isn't particularly difficult as Apple provides training, self-study, and certification options for gaining those skills. The operative word here is 'scale' because effectively supporting a handful of Macs isn't particularly challenging. As a result, IT departments adopting Macs must understand these differences and ensure that they have the skills to adequately and efficiently support, manage, and deploy Macs at scale. One barrier that still exists: the fact that OS X is architecturally different from Windows. With a solid suite of major business and productivity apps and the ability for Macs to easily integrate into major enterprise systems, there are far fewer barriers to Mac adoption in the enterprise today than compared to even a few years ago. Scale matters when it comes to Mac deployments The following is the first of three articles aimed at helping you make the best of your Mac fleet.

Integration with Apple's larger ecosystem, particularly where it relates to the iPhone, which still dominates as the enterprise smartphone, provides an additional argument for Macs in business. Initiating a major Mac deployment is becoming a more attractive option for many organizations because of the potential cost savings on support, more robust security, and reliable (if premium) hardware, as well as for reasons of user demand and/or satisfaction. Though the size and speed of IBM's Mac deployment are significant, the more noteworthy numbers involve the costs to deploy and support Macs: According to CFO Luca Maestri, IBM has been saving roughly $270 for each MacBook its employees use instead of a traditional PC, and IBM VP Fletcher Previn has said that only 5 percent of IBM employees using MacBooks have called the help desk for support, as compared with 40 percent of PC users. This past fall, for example, Apple and IBM highlighted the growing number of Macs used by employees of Big Blue, with IBM committing to 50,000 new MacBooks, a purchase order that saw IBM deploying about 1,900 Macs each week. Business use of Macs is on the rise, and with it the need to better manage the fleet. If you still think Macs are fare for only specialty departments like design and marketing, think again.