Jamf or Intune

[staylor1972]

Hi All

 

Were looking at managing a suite of 50 imacs and 20 ipads. Do we need to invest in Jamf to dish out settings, apps and updates or can Intune handle these things?

 

We already have Intune as part of our campus agreement but wondered if it was an good with Apple products. Most of the places i've looked mention Jamf as the way to go but at a considerable cost.

 

Any comments greatly appreciated.

 

 

S

[Norphy]

Intune can handle all of those things. If you've already got it, it's good enough imo.

 

JAMF may be better, but it's a LOT more money.

[Brimstone]

Go with Jamf, Intune is not up to the job for macOS and whilst Intune "can" manage iOS it's quite possibly the worst MDM for iOS on the market.

 

Would you expect Microsoft to use Intune for their macOS and iOS estate? They don't, they use Jamf.

 

https://www.jamf.com/blog/microsoft-intune-and-jamf-pro-better-together-to-manage-and-secure-macs/

[Brimstone]

Intune can handle all of those things. If you've already got it, it's good enough imo.

Intune can not handle all of those things...

 

It can not create custom launch Daemons, it doesn't have a very easy PKG or DMG Composing process, it doesn't allow custom PLIST files, printer deployment scripts are very poor

[DalekSec]

Other MDMs are avaible, we use Mosyle. Doesn't do what Jamf does but does what we need it to! Does a lot more than Intune (which isnt hard tbf)

[sparkeh]

Yeah take Intune off that list but expand to other MDMs. If you want the most comprehensive solution, Jamf is the way forward but there might be other options that do what you want.

[staylor1972]

Hi All

 

Thanks for the input. I'll take Intune off the list then and maybe have a look round at the some other options to.

 

What are the costings like with Mosyle?

[Rob_D]

I'd agree with the others, Intune isn't great at iOS. We use Filewave for our macs and ipads.

[Roberto]

I can't believe people are ragging on intune for iOS while I'm sitting here managing literally thousands of iDevices globally for a financial institution without any issues of note being logged in the past 18 months. Guess I must just be lucky.

 

JAMF is a better MDM in isolation and while it's expensive, it's money well spent if you need its features. Intune's strength is in its integration with Azure Conditional Access and Office 365. I'd argue that if you're using O365 this puts intune squarely in the picture. Where it does have weaknesses in the Apple world is its management of MacOS devices which is pretty weak. It is however perfectly possible to use JAMF to manage your MacOS devices, intune to manage your iOS devices (while saving money on JAMF licences for iOS) and integrate JAMF with intune to give your JAMF-managed devices the same integration with Azure and O365 that the intune-managed devices enjoy.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Roberto

[Guest Guest]

We use JAMF school, it's easy to use and pricings not bad we paid £18 per device these are valid for the lifetime of the device

[Brimstone]

We use JAMF school, it's easy to use and pricings not bad we paid £18 per device these are valid for the lifetime of the device

You’ve overspent I’m afraid, when an iPad breaks or gets smashed you will have to buy another licence. Device life licences are a waste of money, especially when you can licence Jamf School for 3 years for £15.00 and these are not device life based.

[Brimstone]

I can't believe people are ragging on intune for iOS while I'm sitting here managing literally thousands of iDevices globally for a financial institution without any issues of note being logged in the past 18 months. Guess I must just be lucky.

 

JAMF is a better MDM in isolation and while it's expensive, it's money well spent if you need its features. Intune's strength is in its integration with Azure Conditional Access and Office 365. I'd argue that if you're using O365 this puts intune squarely in the picture. Where it does have weaknesses in the Apple world is its management of MacOS devices which is pretty weak. It is however perfectly possible to use JAMF to manage your MacOS devices, intune to manage your iOS devices (while saving money on JAMF licences for iOS) and integrate JAMF with intune to give your JAMF-managed devices the same integration with Azure and O365 that the intune-managed devices enjoy.

Intune may work well in an Azure AD corporate environment and coupled with Jamf Pro for Conditional Access controls it’s a fantastic secure management solution, but this is a school.

 

It doesn’t support Apple Classroom or, if the school are planning for this, shared iPad.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Brimstone

[free780]

Intune works for 1:1. Schools like shared devices which apple doesn't like. All MDMs can only do what apple allows. Jamf is the market leader for a reason. You'll never get the management you get over Windows on Mac. With Jamf you can add custom scripts etc which may get close.

[JonnyAlpha]

I use JamF to manage about 90 iPads, simple and effective.

[Guest Guest]

You’ve overspent I’m afraid, when an iPad breaks or gets smashed you will have to buy another licence. Device life licences are a waste of money, especially when you can licence Jamf School for 3 years for £15.00 and these are not device life based.

If our old iPads are anything to go buy we haven't. We currently have 1 iPad 4 still in use (if it were up to me this would've been scrapped) and a number of original iPad Airs which are probably about 6 years old.

 

We don't have many issues with damage to iPads so I'd expect a similar life span on the devices we licensed with device licences.

 

Over 6 years works out at £3 per year plus we don't have to mess around with license renewals each year

[Brimstone]

All MDMs can only do what apple allows.

 

Wrong, many of Apple's prebuilt payloads in many 3rd party MDM's can not be edited or scripted, these don't provide anything extra.

 

Whilst it is Apple that maintains the MDM Framework API, this can be augmented by vendors like Jamf with their own software which can utilise hundreds of custom scripts and triggers premade or built yourself.

[_techie_]

2nd for Mosyle. It's fine so long as you get your MDM APNS through your firewall. It works for about £3 a device.