As businesses grow, their Mac fleets become harder to manage consistently. Settings diverge, updates fall behind and devices become increasingly unique. This increases risk and creates unnecessary work for small IT teams.
Does this setup sound familiar? Well, you're not alone. Inconsistency is a common problem! Read on to discover how small teams can rein in the chaos and set themselves up for fewer problems down the road.
There are many understandable causes of this type of inconsistent setup, especially as businesses grow from small, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants businesses into larger organizations.
When you're pulled in all directions and everything has a deadline of 'yesterday,' it can feel faster to just manually address the problem in front of you rather than taking the time to research and set up helpful tools.
Here's what starts to happen:
These seemingly small changes can lead to big headaches down the road for IT.
With the right solutions in place to standardize and automate configurations, IT experiences:
When IT can be sure that each new device has the most optimized setup, there are fewer surprises and thus fewer fixes. This saves IT time, cuts back on end-user frustration and keeps everyone more secure.
You can accomplish this with:
One of the most common ways that devices can slide out of compliance or alignment is through patching and updating. When your IT team automates OS updates and patching based on each device's configuration, there is no room for human error. With Apple's relatively new Declarative Device Management (DDM) protocol, devices proactively reach out to the server to report when they need updates or are no longer meeting compliance, and with proper configuration settings, these updates and fixes can deploy without anyone touching the interface.
Using blueprints and compliance benchmarks, IT can ensure that each device is configured correctly. As roles and devices change, it's important to manage devices and users using Smart Groups: lists of devices and users that update dynamically based on permissions, roles and devices. All these capabilities work in the background with DDM to ensure that each device and each user always have the correct configurations to smooth business processes and save IT time.
Ensure access and reduce redundant IT workflows at the same time! Use a solution that integrates seamlessly with an identity provider (such as Okta or Microsoft Entry ID) to allow admin privileges (temporary and fixed), cross-location content and network access and even entry to buildings.
Here is where DDM shines. After IT staff have created configuration settings, DDM allows devices to proactively reach out to the server to report when they have fallen out of compliance. Set up correctly, the device and the server can automate any changes or fixes needed to keep the device properly configured.
When management and security tools work together, they catch inconsistencies sooner and can implement remediation faster — often without the need for any staff action. Similarly, automation in setup and in compliance enforcement reduces human error. With DDM, updates and baselines stick because if they deviate at all for whatever reason, your system is set up to be self-correcting for all but unusually complex issues.
Standardization becomes sustainable when you have processes and frameworks set up that automate detection, remediation and configurations as much as possible. When you have figured out how to keep standardization rolling in your organization, it's time to reap the benefits.
As you can see, maintaining consistent settings for day-to-day business and for endpoint protection can make a world of difference for your growing organization. If you'd like to see how Jamf can help you become that consistent, please contact us.
Even if you decide that Jamf doesn't fit your needs, you can follow specific steps for onboarding new devices or users that will get you off to a consistent start with our Mac Onboarding Checklist.
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