User profile for user: usr_unknown
usr_unknown Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Small business mac management

Hello everyone,


I am looking for help ressources about managing a small business machine park.


I have subscribe to the business.apple.com service and their MDM solution, but they confirmed that i cannot add machine bought with a private account on the applestore… So my situation is the following :


  • 4 iMacs 27" 5K
  • 1 MacBookPro
  • 1 MacBookAir
  • 1 iPadPro
  • 1 2008 Dual MacPro (not important - can be let out of the equation - OSX High Sierra)


All macs but the MacPro are using catalina, ipad is on ios 13, they all have been bought through the years on different platform (AppleStore mainly, but other providers as well).


What would be the best and/or easiest way to manage their systems, user accounts and apps remotely.

I wish i could make all the management through my main machine (as of today i do everything manually and it’s become difficult).

I am a bit drowning in different informations : apple or other provider MDM (though iMacs are not "mobile" per se), Mac OSX Server seems to be on a garage way (?), business account vs personnal, etc.


Can anyone put me on the right track ?

Thank you so much !


iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 12, 2020 12:54 AM

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User profile for user: Erich Wetzel
Erich Wetzel
User level: Level 2
384 points

Posted on Mar 16, 2020 11:12 AM

I run a small business network with just a few more machines than you have. I have just completed the transition from MacOS Server to Mosyle Business MDM. They came as a recommendation by an Apple Business rep for a cost effective alternative to the bigger names in Apple MDM. They charge $1 / machine / month with a minimum requirement of 15 devices paid even if you do not have them. Even with unused device slots, $180 is cheap for this type of thing. They seem to be up to date with good feature sets for MacOS, iOS, and tvOS devices.


You can manually connect each device to the MDM without concern for where they were purchased.


I have been running Apple Servers since AppleShareIP was current. The transition to an off-site service is both challenging because someone else has our information and liberating because I no longer have to worry about rebuilding servers at 2 am. We have been running Mosyle for about a month now with no problems to report.


Hope this helps.


-Erich



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User profile for user: Erich Wetzel
Erich Wetzel
User level: Level 2
384 points

Mar 16, 2020 11:12 AM in response to usr_unknown

I run a small business network with just a few more machines than you have. I have just completed the transition from MacOS Server to Mosyle Business MDM. They came as a recommendation by an Apple Business rep for a cost effective alternative to the bigger names in Apple MDM. They charge $1 / machine / month with a minimum requirement of 15 devices paid even if you do not have them. Even with unused device slots, $180 is cheap for this type of thing. They seem to be up to date with good feature sets for MacOS, iOS, and tvOS devices.


You can manually connect each device to the MDM without concern for where they were purchased.


I have been running Apple Servers since AppleShareIP was current. The transition to an off-site service is both challenging because someone else has our information and liberating because I no longer have to worry about rebuilding servers at 2 am. We have been running Mosyle for about a month now with no problems to report.


Hope this helps.


-Erich



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Small business mac management

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