Workgroup Manager and the MCX tech beneath it dates back to NeXT. It was designed in a world of desktops and static computing. The world has changed and mobility requires a new approach to handle delivery of configuration to devices that may never be on the LAN that the management server is on. Profile Manager is that solution. It is heavily invested in Apple's push services allowing an MDM to reach out and find the device it needs to manage, regardless of the network that it is on.
Profile Manager uses many of the structural terms of MCX. You can manage at the user, group, device, and device group level. This matches to the user, group, computer, and computer group level of MCX. The trick with Profile Manager is that you need to bind to OD to get user and group management and you need to enroll to Profile Manager to get device and device group management. Or you can simply enroll and ignore user and group if you have no central directory.
Next, Profile Manager also supports two new Apple technologies that immediately make it the superior choice. DEP (device enrollment program) and VPP (volume purchasing plan). With these two solutions you can significantly streamline your device deployment and app store app distribution. DEP associates hardware with your MDM so that the device seeks the MDM during Setup Assistant. In other words, the device arrived ready to be managed with little to no effort by the end user. VPP links your corporate App catalog to individual Apple IDs (which you don't manage), allowing the assignment and revocation of AppStore apps. Finally, your company retains the app assets.
Here is a good rule of thumb. If you are supporting 10.9 or higher, use only Profile Manager (or a 3rd party MDM). If you have to support legacy devices running 10.8 or older, use MCX (yes Profile Manager has support for 10.8 but it was rudimentary and in my experience MCX was a better fit during that transition OS). Do not use both technologies on the same device.
Yes I morn the passing of MCX as much as I did NetInfo. But the reality is the newer stuff is better. For you right now it is the unknown. Spend a few days with it and you will see the light.
Oh, and there are many other products out there that may provide a more scalable solution for you. Depending on your size, look at Bushel, Casper Suite, AirWatch, Mobile Iron, and many, many more. Heck, Microsoft even has an MDM (no OS X support yet but rumor says it is coming soon).
Reid
Apple Consultants Network
Author "Yosemite Server – Foundation Services" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store
Author "Mavericks Server – Foundation Services" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store
Author "Mavericks Server – Control and Collaboration" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store
