OREANDA-NEWS. IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced new cloud-based IT services to help clients quickly, easily and securely integrate Macs with their enterprise systems and applications.

MAC at Work

This new offering from IBM MobileFirst Managed Mobility Services is designed to help large enterprises incorporate Macs within their IT infrastructures – a rising requirement, as more clients adopt or allow the use of Macs by their employees. Shipments of Macs are growing faster than the industry average, and the Mac has outgrown the PC industry every year for the last decade.

These new mobility services for Mac are based on experience IBM gained through its internal Mac@IBM program, with IBM deploying Macs to employees around the globe at speed and scale, in a highly secure enterprise environment.  With its partnership with Apple, this presented an opportunity for IBM to commercialize this offering using its own experience in enterprise deployment and the ability to scale to clients’ specific needs.

IBM also has been providing these services on a custom basis for a variety of clients and with the growing interest in adopting Macs into the enterprise, IBM is now offering them as a standard services offering. The integration services for Mac are delivered via the cloud as a software-as-a-service solution and also are available as an on-premise solution in the client’s data center.

“Ease of adoption and use are at the foundation of every Apple product, and as these devices are used more in the workplace, people expect the same experience they enjoy with Apple technology in their personal lives,” said Richard Patterson, general manager, Infrastructure Services, IBM Global Technology Services. “IBM’s new enterprise services ensure a great user experience for clients using Macs, providing world-class support from installation through the life of the product.”

With these new services, clients can order Macs and have them delivered directly to their employees without any additional set-up, imaging or configuration, saving time, reducing costs and creating a great employee experience. Employees can then quickly, easily and securely gain network access, connect to email and download business applications. The services also can support personally owned Macs that are authorized in a bring-your-own-device environment.

The new services feature the Casper Suite from JAMF Software, the leading software solution for helping clients quickly set up and deploy Macs, including MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, iMac, and Mac Pro. With the combination of Casper Suite and IBM’s enterprise integration and support services, clients can work with IBM to directly procure, integrate and manage Macs across their IT infrastructures and employee bases. These services also can support clients who choose to deploy both Macs and iOS devices within their enterprises.

“Today’s announcement is a powerful testament to the growing demand for Apple technology in the enterprise and to the strong relationship between IBM and JAMF to help organizations inventory, deploy and secure their Apple devices,” said Dean Hager, CEO, JAMF Software. “This is a great opportunity for us to work with IBM in helping businesses and other large organizations succeed with Apple.”

This new offering is an enhancement to IBM’s MobileFirst services portfolio, specifically designed to support Macs. It complements existing IBM enterprise services supporting iOS devices, including iPad and iPhone, creating a comprehensive suite of services for enterprise deployment and management of Apple products.

In addition to simplifying deployment, the new IBM services allow enterprises to easily manage ongoing support for Macs, providing OS and image management, software application and update management, an enterprise app catalog, automatic compliance and configuration updates for security, and inventory and reporting for hardware and software. Users also can access a range of self-help resources, including password reset, chat, and expert knowledge forums, as well as traditional help desk services.

These new mobility services for Mac join a growing list of enhanced IBM mobile enterprise services introduced by IBM last year. Those services include Infrastructure Development Services, Application Platform Management Services, Device Procurement and Deployment Services, Managed Mobility Services, Mobile Network Services, Mobile Collaboration Services, Mobile Virtualization, and IBM Smart and Embedded Device Security.

With these new services announced today, IBM is ideally suited to help enterprise clients who are running systems and applications across a range of platforms, with one of the broadest sets of technology services offerings across Windows, Linux, AIX, zOS, iOS, Android and now OS X.

About JAMF Software

Since 2002, JAMF Software—and the Casper Suite solution—have made it easy for businesses, schools and other enterprises to unleash the power of Apple devices in their organizations.