Enterprise IT organizations are dealing with multiple support calls relating to the latest release of the Apple OS X operating system generally known as OS X Mavericks. Like most operating system upgrades, Mavericks comes with a fair number of glitches that will generate calls to the IT help desk regardless of who owns the machine.
To help IT help desks deal with Mavericks in particular and Apple in general, JAMF Software has upgraded its Casper Suite of management tools for Apple systems with support for Mavericks, including the new encryption and virtual private networking capabilities that Apple has included in this version of its operating system.
According to Jason Tober, vice president of sales for JAMF Software, despite the fact that Apple doesn’t really market its systems for the enterprise, the latest version of Mavericks includes critical enterprise-grade functionality that most IT organizations who use the OS will want to make available as soon as possible. But rather than using service desk tools optimized for Windows environments, JAMF Software is deploying help desk applications specifically designed to manage Apple systems.
In addition to Apple OS X, the Casper suite can also be used to manage iOS smartphones and tablets and JAMF Software has developed a plug in that integrates the Casper Suite with a variety of Windows help desk environments.
Tober says JAMF already has 4,000 customers that have 2.8 million Apple systems under management. The difference is, instead of trying to manage Apple systems from within an environment that can’t really replicate the Apple user experience, Casper Suite allows help desk personnel to get users up and running as quickly as possible and in a way that helps anyone inexperienced with OS X feel more in the loop.