Deploying multiple ipads in business

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

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Joined
30 Sep 2006
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Midlands, UK
Hi all,
so we're going down the ipad route for our site managers.
I've just bought 10 ipad Airs (wifi+3g).

However, connecting each one to a computer to activate with itunes is gonna be a nut-ache. Not to mention installing a selection of apps of each and using enough security to stop users putting their own garbage on them. Then configuring exchange for them yadda yadda yadda!

Anyone got experience with deploying them in a business?

With our current iphones and the odd ipad or two, i tend to setup an itunes account for that user.
Not sure that's good practice tbh. With their own itunes account they are free to install whatever they want (which i don't want). Plus employees come and go, so i then have to change the password on their itunes account should they leave.
The other way would be to activate each device with a generic company itunes account, but not sure that's an acceptable method either.

We run a windows based network, so no macs/macservers etc, but i assume there may be some management software available to admin this?

Any advice on a decent and sensible way to handle this would be most appreciated, thanks.

:)
 
We use Meraki here. Pretty good piece of software, all cloud based.

Gives restrictions for pretty much everything you need as well as Exchange setup, VPN etc.
 
Casper is the in thing for mac management at the moment but depending on the size of your mac infrastructure, it may not be worth setting up if it remains small.

I know centrify has something to manage iPads and android devices, but never used it myself, and again may not be worth setting up depending on the size of your infrastructure.

Apple do provide their own management software for iOS devices where apps and settings can be pushed, but I can't find the link at the moment.

The way I'm managing it at the moment is very dirty, basically we have two accounts, one where they can download what ever stuff they want as long as it's free and another where we used for paid apps that they don't have the password to. I've created a standard backup for all the iPads to use with all the default apps and all emails goes to me so I can track purchases. It was a quick fix and really needs to be revised with a management solution but the number of iPads we have crept up and took the management team by surprise and didn't budget for such system. I'm leave my place at the end of next week so I suppose I best look at it again next week.
 
Nymins said:
We use Meraki here. Pretty good piece of software, all cloud based.

Gives restrictions for pretty much everything you need as well as Exchange setup, VPN etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've installed this and on first glance it seems to do what i want.
I've got my Galaxy S2 and one of the new ipad air's being managed by it.
Pretty nifty........considering it's free.
Be good if they can support WP8 too :)
 
We trialed Apples profile manager back when we first started playing catchup, it was utter garbage. Meraki is pretty good if you have no budget. However, if you think this is just the start of the adoption of mobile devices and that it could snowball over time I would seriously suggest looking into Airwatch. We're trialing it right now and it is the utter dogs meatballs MDM solution. The system is SaaS based and there is a per device subscription involved but they're willing to negotiate to get your business. I've already negotiated a 60%~ discount when we launch.

Enrollment of a device is always a ballache whatever setup you're using. For our setup I'm working on our network team to get AirWatch integrated with Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) so we'll be able to squirt initial config & profiles over the air. This will also tackle compliance of BYOD for extra brownie points ;)
 
Can't see us ever using more than say 20 ipds in the business. Even so i think Meraki will do us just fine.
Tracking the devices is very useful.

I will, however look into Airwatch, so thanks for the heads up. :)
 
Ok, so playing with meraki.
Seemed good at first, but then i hit some snags.
I bought an ipad app for deployment, and chose the deploy by MDM option rather than the Redemption code option as it seemed to describe my needs perfectly.
However Meraki only seems to support redemption codes. So looks like i've wasted some money there. So i bought the app again using the redemption code option.
It allowed me to push the app to an ipad but the ipad then asked for appleID credentials.
Now, unless i'm missing something here, wtf is the point of MDM for deploying software if it requires user interaction to input an admin password to actually allow the install? I can't see the sense of that. Surely when the central admin has pushed it out, it should be a silent install?

I then updated spiceworks to v7 and that has 'free' mobile MDM for all platforms including WP8.
Cool, or so i thought. Because to use any features above a basic overview of the device requires a paid for service of £4pcm per device, which for 50+ devices is £200pcm.....bugger that!
It's support for WP8 isn't that good anyway and we use Nokia Lumias as our main smart device throughout the company.

I'm wanting to manage our devices centrally, but don't have the budget to pay crazy amounts of money.
 
The iPads will need Apple ID's of their own would they not? So whenever you deploy the app to them, they will prompt for the user to input their Apple ID password to redeem the code which is then assigned to their Apple ID.
 
Yeah, but that makes no sense. AS the admin of the MDM i should be able to push apps/whatever to the device silently without user intervention. Surely that's the whole point of centrally managing devices. Otherwise the user gets to know the appleID, or if they use their own, then they can install all sorts of crap willy nilly.
 
I'd of thought this is more of an iOS issue rather than an MDM issue, as you need an Apple ID to use the device let alone install apps.

/\ Assuming iOS 7 is being used of course.
 
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It could also be worse - imagine you had 400+ iPads just given out randomly to staff and students with no management or tracking. Some of these staff and students then upgrade to iOS7 of their own accord and Activation Lock these iPads to their own Apple accounts....
 
Personally I'd return the lot. The amount of money and effort I see wasted time and time again trying to integrate iPads into Windows networks is incredible. The back end is Windows and your smartphones are Windows Phone - so who's idea was it to throw iPads into the mixer?

Anyway your best bet is probably to pick up a cheap Mac (something like a Mini) for your configuration tasks. It's a one time purchase and suitable for managing a relatively small amount of devices. I've seen a lot of places go that route and seems quite cost effective.
 
squerble said:
It could also be worse - imagine you had 400+ iPads just given out randomly to staff and students with no management or tracking. Some of these staff and students then upgrade to iOS7 of their own accord and Activation Lock these iPads to their own Apple accounts....
Click to expand...

They can do that anyway seeing as they require an itunes password to install the apps the MDM pushes out to them.
That was kind of my point, the particular MDM i'm trialling doesn't fully manage the device from an I.T. pov. Not sure if others are different, as i still had to get a certificate from apple.

Personally I'd return the lot. The amount of money and effort I see wasted time and time again trying to integrate iPads into Windows networks is incredible. The back end is Windows and your smartphones are Windows Phone - so who's idea was it to throw iPads into the mixer?
Click to expand...
Some eejit in sales no doubt. Usually someone on the board who has the MD's ear. That said, just had a chat with the boss over porridge (wtf?) and he agreed to buy a couple of MS Surface tabs. However they don't have cellular, so that's a big negative for the way we need to use the tablets.

Anyway your best bet is probably to pick up a cheap Mac (something like a Mini) for your configuration tasks. It's a one time purchase and suitable for managing a relatively small amount of devices. I've seen a lot of places go that route and seems quite cost effective.
Click to expand...
You think that would solve my issue with users having to input a password to allow the app to install?
 
Why not let your users use their own Apple ID (they could set a new one up with their company e-mail address, or use an existing one), then require them to enrol the device with Meraki? You can then switch on restrictions, stopping them from installing games for their kids, for example, and set a required password to remove these restrictions.

Yes, if you push an app, they will have to put their Apple ID password in - not ideal, but a restriction of iOS. But you can track whether this has been done from Meraki. You could even temporarily disable devices if people are being awkward and not installing things.
 
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