Meraki Silent Installs

[Its5oclocksomewhere]

Does Meraki need OSX Server running MDM to deploy the apps silently? I'm just looking at moving a site over from using Apple Configurator to Meraki (as that seems to be getting more traction than Configurator & seems a better solution (allowing us to deploy remotely).

[tmoon-mint]

Using a combination of Supervised devices and a VPP account will allow you to push apps silently, as long as you aren't restricting any apps by age rating.

[Its5oclocksomewhere]

Yes, but to Supervise the device you need either Configurator or MDM in Mac server presumably? There is no way to get rid of Configurator (or MDM) & just use VPP to purchase apps & Meraki to deploy them silently?

[MrFrostmaul]

You can now Supervise the iPads via Apple's new DEP system which come supervised out of the box. There have been some issues lately (in IOS 8.x) with Silently installing apps which used to work via VPP and Meraki, but no longer do.

[Its5oclocksomewhere]

Wonderful. I'll have a play & see how it works.

 

I presume I'm barking up the right tree here & not missing something... We're looking for something that allows us to remotely update, manage & install new apps at sites with 30-100 pupil iPads & say up to 30 staff iPads. The issue with Configurator is that it takes half a century to get all of the iPads in, plug them into a sync cabinet & keep them up to date. If we're doing it with Meraki (assuming Silent installs), we don't even have to be at the site. We can of course dial into an onsite box through Logmein, etc if there is a better solution.

[Its5oclocksomewhere]

I wanted Apple to be at BETT so that I could walk onto the stand & tell them how c*** all of this is. For a company with a larger bank balance than Jupiter, you'd think they'd be able to chuck a load of cash at this & come up with something as good as the rest of their products.

 

I've been an Apple evangelist since OS X Panther was around & can't believe that they could make a solution be more cumbersome than Microsoft!

[tmoon-mint]

I wanted Apple to be at BETT so that I could walk onto the stand & tell them how c*** all of this is. For a company with a larger bank balance than Jupiter, you'd think they'd be able to chuck a load of cash at this & come up with something as good as the rest of their products.

 

I've been an Apple evangelist since OS X Panther was around & can't believe that they could make a solution be more cumbersome than Microsoft!

 

Lets be honest, Apples target audience is home users. Sure they could throw money around, but why should they when the vast majority of their target audience is home users. I can totally understand your frustrations but unfortunately we just have to work with what we are given. The solution is still infinitely better than any tablet offerings from Microsoft. The surface pro 3 is fantastic, the price however is not.