Blog Archive

How to Build Your Own Universal Installer for Mac Apps

Noah Anderson

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6 min read

How to Build Your Own Universal Installer for Mac Apps

The job of installing apps on your organization’s Mac computers—one of the most fundamental responsibilities for any Apple admin—is complicated by the fact that there are still two different Mac processor types in use: Intel and Apple silicon. The continued coexistence of those two architectures means admins must often manage and deploy two different versions of any given app.

Microsoft Conditional Access: How to Enforce It with Certificates

Organizations can use a variety of signals when making decisions about allowing access to enterprise resources. Relying solely on authentication via password isn’t enough: According to data from Webtribunal, 50 percent of people use the same password across different accounts, and 51 percent use the same password for their personal and work accounts. Multifactor authentication (MFA) is often used as another layer of security, but even that doesn’t eliminate risk exposure.

Behind the Curtain: Managing Software Updates with MDM

Over the past several years, Apple has made a number of deep platform changes to both macOS and Mac hardware that have resulted in enormous shifts in how Mac computers are deployed and managed.

iPad as Primary Work Device: Why Apple Admins Should Support It

For many years, if employees were given a choice in the kind of digital device they’d use for work, it was usually a binary one: Mac or PC. But IT teams now frequently get requests for a third option: iPad.

WWDC 2022: The Top 10 Announcements for Apple Admins

Last week’s WWDC included nearly 200 sessions. Most of them focused on topics of interest primarily to developers (rightly enough), but many had announcements of interest to Apple admins as well. If you weren’t able to virtually attend, or if you missed some sessions that sounded interesting, not to worry: Here are the 10 announcements we think were of greatest relevance to those who manage Apple devices.

WWDC 2022: Apple Advances Declarative Device Management

Last year, at WWDC 2021, Apple introduced a new concept for Apple admins: Dubbed declarative device management (a.k.a. declarative MDM), it was an evolutionary advance of the MDM protocol. The declarative model is designed to push much of the management down to the device itself. Instead of a server polling a device for its status and issuing commands to it (as happens with the current MDM protocol), declarative device management lets the device react to its own state changes by applying management on its own. This year, at WWDC 2022, Apple announced an expansive update to declarative MDM: Where the original iteration worked only on iOS and iPadOS devices with user enrollment, it will now work on all Apple platforms, including Mac and Apple TV, and with all enrollment types. It also added new status reports and improved syntax for rules that define how a device is to be managed.

WWDC 2022: How Apple Plans to Make True Single Sign-On a Reality

For Mac admins, single sign-on (SSO) sounds like a great idea. In that ideal world, a user would turn on their Mac computer, sign in with their credentials, and then—with that one sign-in—have access to everything: their local user account; apps on their device; resources you provide on the local network; and apps and services that reside in the cloud. So far, though, that ideal has remained out of reach. The user still has to sign in first to a local account, then again to apps and services. SSO services such as Okta and OneLogin make that easier, by providing a single login for cloud-based resources. But true single sign-on isn’t here yet.

Certificates and Device Management: A Guide for Mac Admins

On the Internet, nobody knows who you are–only who you say you are. Our digital interactions happen on servers and devices, with people we may never see in person. So how do we know that the websites and services we connect to online are legit? How do we know that the emails, texts, and other transmissions we receive are indeed what their senders sent? How does an organization know that the user or device trying to authenticate into an enterprise resource really is that user or device? In the digital world, certificates are widely used to establish these and other forms of trust. Here’s an overview of how they work and how they’re used in the enterprise.

How Mac Admins Are Managing the Hybrid Workplace

Two years ago, IT departments all over the world got a crash course in managing remote workforces. Mac admins had to quickly figure out how to keep employees equipped, connected, and secure, regardless of where they were physically located. Last year, many organizations that had made the switch to remote started to cautiously reopen, allowing (or, in some cases, requiring) workers to come into the office at least part of the time. That reopening waxed and waned through 2021, as conditions allowed. But in the meantime, a new kind of office evolved: the hybrid workplace, in which some employees worked remotely, some worked in the office, and many did a bit of both. In the course of that evolution, what was once a temporary expedient became a new way of doing business—thanks in no small part to the adaptability of IT.

Apple Removing Python 2.7: What Admins Need to Know and Do

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Apple is removing Python 2.7 from the upcoming macOS 12.3 release: As far back as 2019, the company said it was deprecating the scripting and programming language and that Python would not be included with future versions of the OS. Now Apple is simply making good on that promise.

How to Be an IT Hero: Creating the Best User Experience

At the end of the day, what is a Mac admin’s primary responsibility? To deliver hardware? To maintain security? To just keep the trains running? Some would argue that the real goal is to keep users happy, from their day-one onboarding through their entire lifecycle with the organization. But how do you create user experiences that will keep employees—and leadership—happy? That was the question we asked at a recent Kandji panel discussion, “The IT Hero’s Quest: Deliver the Best Experience for Mac Users.” Hosted by Steven Vogt (Senior Product Engineer), the guests were Michael Tsai (Senior Product Manager at Kandji) and Charlie Klausen (IT Manager at Forward Financing). All three have many, many years of experience working with and as IT admins. All three had plenty to say about how and why admins should make great end-user experiences their primary goal.

Hybrid Workplace Boosts Demand for Apple Devices Among UK Businesses

Last year, Kandji commissioned a survey to find out how IT admins and leaders in the United States were dealing with the new hybrid workplace—in which some employees work remotely, some are in the office, and many do both. That survey found that the shift to hybrid work over the past two years coincided with increased demand for Apple devices among business users. It turns out that the correlation between hybrid work and Apple demand isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon: A new Kandji-commissioned survey of 250 senior IT decision-makers and more than 1,000 remote and hybrid workers in the United Kingdom found much the same is true there.

How to Achieve Your Desired End-State Through Auto-Remediation

How do you want the devices you manage to be configured? What settings do you want to be enforced, which apps do you want to be installed, how often should the OS be updated—in other words, what is the end-state that you want to achieve? And how are you going to achieve it? Those were the questions that Arek Dreyer and Matt Wilson—senior product engineers at Kandji—discussed at our recent live event, “A Deep Dive into Auto-Remediation.” They’re questions that every Mac admin asks—and is asked—on a regular basis. Arek and Matt looked at the ways Kandji can help you achieve the end-state you want for the Apple devices you manage.

Protect Your Data: Control What Users Can Copy/Paste

Back at WWDC 2021 in June, Apple announced a slew of exciting changes that are coming to device management, from declarative MDM to erase all content and settings for Mac. With the arrival of iOS and iPadOS 15, many of those announcements became reality, including an enhancement to Managed Open In. Here’s a quick recap of what Managed Open In is, what the latest update does, and how you can use Kandji to exert greater control over what users can do with your company’s data.

Kandji Raises $100 Million Series C to Advance Apple in the Enterprise

Kandji has announced that it has raised $100 million in Series C funding, at a nearly 10x increase in valuation since the company’s Series A funding round one year ago. This latest round was led by Tiger Global with participation from Definition and Frontline Ventures and from existing investors First Round Capital, Greycroft, Felicis Ventures, The Spruce House Partnership, B Capital Group, SVB Capital, and Okta Ventures. Today’s financing—the company’s third round since last year—brings Kandji’s total funding raised to $188.5 million. Kandji will use these funds to further evolve its product offerings, increase global hiring, and open a London office.