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With so many Mac systems infiltrating organizations today, IT admins are wondering how they can automate macOS® deployment. By automating the system deployment process, IT organizations can save loads of time normally spent unboxing, registering, and imaging new Mac machines. The challenge, however, is finding the proper avenues to do so.
Zero-Touch Enrollment with JumpCloud MDM
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First Steps Toward Automating macOS Deployment
DEP
Apple® realized that Mac deployment was a time-consuming process, creating DEP, or the Device Enrollment Program, in response. IT organizations can leverage their DEP accounts to streamline the general Mac deployment process, with automatic mobile device management (MDM) enrollment as well as the ability to opt out of unboxing steps (i.e. Apple ID, et al.).
IdP
Although DEP is useful for gliding through Apple’s PreStage deployment process, it leaves out an important facet of automating macOS deployment: Mac systems need to be managed by a central identity provider (IdP). In general, Macs haven’t played nicely with most IdPs, especially Microsoft® Active Directory® (AD), the most popular on-prem IdP for the last couple of decades.
Even with DEP, IT organizations leveraging AD struggle to automate their macOS deployments. More often than not, IT admins struggle with managing Mac systems through AD, which requires the addition of third-party software to properly extend an AD identity to the Mac system. Using software like an identity bridge usually throws a wrench in the works for DEP.
MDM
Choosing an MDM solution to managing Macs and iOS® mobile devices can help with automating macOS deployment. Unfortunately, not all MDM tools integrate cleanly with AD, making centralized identity management for the system messy as well.
Automated Mac Deployment from the Cloud
With new technology available from the cloud, IT admins can now fully automate the macOS deployment process. Leveraging the JumpCloud® Directory-as-a-Service® platform and its documented PreStage user enrollment guide, an MDM solution, and a DEP account, a Mac can be centrally managed and deployed with only a few clicks. The result is a zero-touch deployment process, where the system is unboxed by the end user and set up automatically without any IT admin involvement.
Watch the following video to get an idea of the general zero-touch deployment process:
[Note: This workflow will change slightly depending on the MDM used.]
The benefits of this approach are significant for IT organizations, with less effort on the part of IT admins and more control over each Mac.
Learn More
If you are interested in learning more about automating macOS deployment with JumpCloud, please contact us for more resources. You can also schedule a free personalized demo to see the process and other parts of the JumpCloud product live.
