JAMF Brings Self-Service Management to Apple Devices

Mobility: How It’s Changing Our Lives

While the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon is a popular idea with some end users, from an IT perspective it can be exceedingly difficult to manage. With the release today of Casper Suite 9.4, JAMF Software is trying to make it easier for employees who have brought Apple devices into the enterprise to self-service their own needs.

JAMF Software CTO Jason Wudi says that much of the BYOD movement is based on people bringing Apple devices into the office, so it makes sense for a company that specializes in managing Apple devices to try and solve the IT management issues that BYOD creates.

To that end, the latest version of the Casper Suite enables end users to provision applications and access corporate networks, while providing a mechanism through which IT can inform them of events that affect the usage of those devices. In addition, Casper Suite provides IT with the ability to remove data from those devices without affecting any of the employee’s personal documents.

Wudi says that when it comes to BYOD, the biggest issue right now isn’t necessarily the IT management technology as much as it is simply establishing trust. End users still don’t have a lot of faith in internal IT organizations; they fear IT will wipe all of their data from their device whenever a problem occurs. IT organizations, says Wudi, need to establish some form of a social contract with end users that promises that the ownership of the data on a device will be respected.

Most users of Apple devices are adept at solving their own device issues either on their own or in collaboration with one another. Internal IT organizations can, of course, provide a lot more invaluable assistance. The challenge is providing that help in an unobtrusive way that doesn’t leave the owner of the device feeling like the corporation is overreaching its boundaries.