iPad - MDM soultions?

[geekgirl]

Hi,

 

Not sure if I'm in the right forum but I've been requested to look at MDM for iPads in the school.

 

I've had a play with Apple Configurator with Meraki but feel that they do not lock down the apps and settings enough.

 

The member of staff who requested this mentioned they would only like the iPads to be able to switch between Safari, iBooks and Kindle apps. They did not want any of the stock apps like Calendar, Contacts, Clock, Settings displayed.

 

The staff member liked both products but felt that both products do not offer what they wanted for the devices currently.

 

I feel that the Apple Platform is not quite there yet for the Education environment.

 

Is there any MDM's out that that could manage this? Happy to trial.

 

Thanks!

[SovietRussia]

Welcome to the iPad club - you have found the first issue - you can't lock them down enough!

 

No MDM can cater for our needs, the payloads are not issued by Apple to anyone. Meraki is pretty advanced, it has even a few features that Profile Manager (Apple's equiv.) does not have.

 

Meraki is your best bet. We all have to accept they have limitations and work around them

 

(Only way to remove stock apps is to jailbreak)

[geekgirl]

Well that's our issue. We don't want our students access to the stock apps. I wanted to make sure that the information about Jailbreaking was correct. Such a pain!

 

It strange that Apple haven't bothered to think about Education in terms of MDM. They try to advertise these "great products" to schools but do a half assed job of it.

The Apple Configurator is fine for Business use but still not there for Education which is a shame because it is a good program.

 

Definitely a gap in the market there!

 

Android devices with Secure Lock may be better for our environment but I'm just not sure on Android. I was a big fan for a while but after several virus', the OS breaking constantly, 100s of updates I had enough. Moved over to Apple, the restrictions of how could develop Apps was a good thing but it's still missing key features in Education.

 

Any one has experience with AirWatch by VMWear or is that pretty much the same as Meraki?

[Joanne]

LEARNPADS!! - your android equivalent, made especially for education. Seriously... get a demo.

 

If you want iPads you have to accept that they are open and stuff.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Joanne

[Quackers]

Apple are working on things to make the iPads a lot more manageable in schools, I have it straight from the horses mouth. No idea on a time frame though , hoping iOS 9 brings them.

[liveman2]

Something that could work for you is the HP Stream 7 tablet. These have really good reviews and you could get three for the price of a single iPad Link. You could potentially populate the start screen and set it to auto-login.

 

But it depends on how fixed you are on Apple, Caspar is supposed to be quite good: Enterprise Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV management | JAMF Software