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Mac administrators brace for big changes to Apple-powered fleets

New features could shake-up how macOS machines are managed

MDM pains

The admins who spoke with El Reg said that much of the pain of shifting to the MDM system will depend on whether the administration tools a company uses can be adapted, and some applications will be better-equipped than others.

In particular, vendors who have not yet developed an MDM product will have a much tougher time adjusting, and companies that rely on those products will face the time-consuming process of switching to a new system – with all the accompanying headaches.

Despite these issues, every administrator and spokesperson The Register spoke with agrees that should Apple's move to APFS also include stricter system protections and MDM, Mac users will be safer and better off in the long run.

Locking away system files and separating the OS from user apps and documents will help to limit the control that malicious apps could gain over their hosts, and remote code exploits would become far less effective when carried out against macOS systems.

An MDM system would also carry a number of potential benefits for the administrators, who'd be able to push out profiles and policies to new Macs automatically.

"Things you are doing right now that are time consuming go away," explained Harold Mann, founder of San Francisco-based IT services company Mann Consulting. "You can release stuff out over your whole company with the press of a button."

Simplifying management of notebooks would also help Apple's ongoing push with the likes of IBM, SAP and Cisco into the enterprise space. While those deals largely involve iOS devices, Macs are also involved, and IBM in particular is raving about the cost savings of using Macs in the enterprise.

A shift to MDM could help to further extend those cost savings and make the combination of Macs and iOS portables an even more attractive setup for large companies, particularly if those systems could be managed with the same set of policies and profiles from a single administration tool thanks to their shared file system.

"That kind of tiered control will please power users and also assuage the network admins' concern about bigger-risk items," Mann explained. "If communicated properly, this should be a win-win for corporate customers."

To do that, however, Apple will need to ensure a smooth transition, and Mac admins are hoping Cupertino's management listens to them and takes their concerns to heart before they push everyone along to the next phase.

Doing so could help Apple solidify its place in the enterprise market, and create an even stronger Mac user community in the process.

"It is sort of like the headphone jack in the iPhone 7," says Mann.

"You have had it for a long time and it is not pleasant to move into the next generation, but the benefits will outweigh the growing pains." ®

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