Mobile device management

[SimonL]

Good morning,

 

We provide IT support to a primary school in Suffolk that currently uses Lightspeed to manage its fleet of iPads. We inherited this environment and we don't make any claims to expertise with this product, although we have 'dug in' to try and resolve the problems.

 

There are continuing problems with some of the iPads being unable to connect reliably to the internet via the school broadband service and proxy (both provided by the county council). There also other less significant problems such as them not automatically updating to new versions of IOS and apps.

 

I have been in contact with the original supplier of the devices and of Lightspeed and they are now recommending a migration to "Jamf".

 

As this isn't really a core competency for us, I would be interested to learn of anyone's experiences of Jamf and its relative strengths compared to Lightspeed. The explanation given for this proposed move is that they consider Jamf to be more modern and intuitive.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Griff]

I would be wary that moving to Jamf you're going to see the same issues if the proxy is not sorted. We have complete autonomy over our internet here and you need so many websites unblocked for these MDM systems to work seamlessly. We are a Lightspeed MDM school have been for 4 or so years and it has become quite clunky but that is down to maybe older iOS on some devices. I have not used Jamf before so cannot comment but people have been recommending https://mosyle.com/ to me for a while.

[RLR]

Most MDMs work the same as they are built on the framework that apple allows MDMs to control. We do use Jamf and it's seen as the gold standard in the Apple world although Mosyle is another good MDM that is seen as a cheaper option. If the devices have passcodes on them then you won't be able to automatically update them. The MDM usually allows you to send commands to update devices but requires users to put in the passcode (this is an apple limitation).

[Brimstone]

Good morning,

 

We provide IT support to a primary school in Suffolk that currently uses Lightspeed to manage its fleet of iPads. We inherited this environment and we don't make any claims to expertise with this product, although we have 'dug in' to try and resolve the problems.

 

There are continuing problems with some of the iPads being unable to connect reliably to the internet via the school broadband service and proxy (both provided by the county council). There also other less significant problems such as them not automatically updating to new versions of IOS and apps.

 

I have been in contact with the original supplier of the devices and of Lightspeed and they are now recommending a migration to "Jamf".

 

As this isn't really a core competency for us, I would be interested to learn of anyone's experiences of Jamf and its relative strengths compared to Lightspeed. The explanation given for this proposed move is that they consider Jamf to be more modern and intuitive.

 

Thanks in advance.

Jamf make 2 mobile device management products, Jamf School (iOS only despite what people on here will say) and Jamf Pro for iOS and macOS.

 

Jamf are very close to Apple and provid zero day support for any new feature that Apple roll out to iOS products. Jamf School has a much more intuitive interface is easier to navigate and Jamf also provide their own apps to enhance the classroom management and learning experience Jamf Teacher, Jamf Student and Jamf Parent.

 

If you are not experienced with MDM’s and iOS then I’d strongly recommend getting an expert involved as migrating MDM’s can be very tricky. All I would say is ensure the school buy Jamf School licences BEFORE the Lightspeed licences expire, it’s much easier to move iPads between MDM’s you also will need to prepare to wipe and reset all the iPads.

[chaplic]

You mean the Suffolk Council proxy that's been having bit a lie-down of late? my worry would be AN other product would have the same issues

 

At the minimum I'd find out what URLs the product uses and have them whitelisted, the school should have a login to do this but even then I've found sometimes it'll still kick in and do odd things so have had to raise a ticket to have a URL whitelisted centrally.

[zendenTechy]

Jamf make 2 mobile device management products, Jamf School (iOS only despite what people on here will say) and Jamf Pro for iOS and macOS.

 

Jamf are very close to Apple and provid zero day support for any new feature that Apple roll out to iOS products. Jamf School has a much more intuitive interface is easier to navigate and Jamf also provide their own apps to enhance the classroom management and learning experience Jamf Teacher, Jamf Student and Jamf Parent.

 

If you are not experienced with MDM’s and iOS then I’d strongly recommend getting an expert involved as migrating MDM’s can be very tricky. All I would say is ensure the school buy Jamf School licences BEFORE the Lightspeed licences expire, it’s much easier to move iPads between MDM’s you also will need to prepare to wipe and reset all the iPads.

 

I am curious about this, I was looking at their documentation today : https://docs.jamf.com/jamf-school/deploy-guide-docs/Jamf_School_Deployment_Guide_and_Documentation.html

 

It has whole sections on macOS Updates/Upgrades, and talks about watchOS and tvOS as wellWhats the deal?

[Brimstone]

I am curious about this, I was looking at their documentation today : https://docs.jamf.com/jamf-school/deploy-guide-docs/Jamf_School_Deployment_Guide_and_Documentation.html

 

It has whole sections on macOS Updates/Upgrades, and talks about watchOS and tvOS as wellWhats the deal?

Jamf School has very, very basic macOS support. It does not have any ability to use Launch Daemons or scripting with them, it only gives you basic packaging options for applications. Want to edit a payload for app configuration? You can't do this in Jamf School.

 

There are lots of other processes you would expect to be able to do with Jamf School but you can't you need Jamf Pro.