Zero Touch iPad Deployment

[garethEds]

What do people use for iPad deployment? We use a combination of Meraki and Apple configurator.

 

I had a go with AC2 this week (I was bored) and was not impressed. So much potential yet falls short.

 

Cannot hide icons, cannot set homepages etc.

 

Am I missing something? Do I need a solution like Meraki or is AC2 enough?

 

How do others prepare their iPads? We've only 30 or so.

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

[MicrodigitUK]

We use Ground Control, it's basically a 3rd party cloud based version of Apple Configurator. We did use Apple Configurator 1 for a number of years but could not get a true Zero touch deployment. I know things in AC2 have improved but from what I tried it is really buggy. Ground control also has the benefit of running on Windows as well as OSX and fast deployments via USB so wifi is not needed to deploy.

AC2 vs Ground Control is like night and day. It saves us hours of work and frustration, can't recommend it enough.

Have a look at there website:

https://www.groundctl.com

 

We also have it linked into our Airwatch MDM for zero touch enroll and app deployment. However, I have seen Ground Control will soon deploy VPP apps via USB. So much faster app install times. Technically once this works we no longer require a MDM!!! Probably keep Airwatch just to track and deploy small policy's at that point.

 

One other bonus we use is there Webhooks features to automatically name devices from our inventory software GLPI. But it will run off a basic CSV import.

 

Cost wise for GroundCtl, it works out about £7 per device at educational rate.

[internetuser]

New kit on DEP is a lot easier to set up and deploy.

[garethEds]

New kit on DEP is a lot easier to set up and deploy.

 

DEP? The Device Enrollement Programme? But don't you need an MDM with that too? I'm trying to find one tool to do it all.

 

GJE

[clodhopper]

Have a chat with James @ Datajar about JSS (https://www.datajar.co.uk/) brilliant bit of software that we use to manage our 1400 ipads all via DEP enrollment .

[Brimstone]

We use Ground Control, it's basically a 3rd party cloud based version of Apple Configurator. We did use Apple Configurator 1 for a number of years but could not get a true Zero touch deployment. I know things in AC2 have improved but from what I tried it is really buggy. Ground control also has the benefit of running on Windows as well as OSX and fast deployments via USB so wifi is not needed to deploy.

AC2 vs Ground Control is like night and day. It saves us hours of work and frustration, can't recommend it enough.

Have a look at there website:

https://www.groundctl.com

 

We also have it linked into our Airwatch MDM for zero touch enroll and app deployment. However, I have seen Ground Control will soon deploy VPP apps via USB. So much faster app install times. Technically once this works we no longer require a MDM!!! Probably keep Airwatch just to track and deploy small policy's at that point.

 

One other bonus we use is there Webhooks features to automatically name devices from our inventory software GLPI. But it will run off a basic CSV import.

 

Cost wise for GroundCtl, it works out about £7 per device at educational rate.

 

Sorry but if you are deploying profiles via GroundControl this is not zero touch deployment as you need to unbox devices and connect via USB to deploy them....DEP and an decent MDM is zero touch deployment.

 

I would use an MDM that can cope with scale to devices e.g. Lightspeed or Casper Suite

[Brimstone]

Have a chat with James @ Datajar about JSS (https://www.datajar.co.uk/) brilliant bit of software that we use to manage our 1400 ipads all via DEP enrollment .

 

 

This is the Casper Suite from JAMF software...Enterprise Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV management | JAMF Software

[dhutchinson]

I use Apple School Manager alongside Lightspeed MDM

[Guest MD5T]

I use meraki with Asm