IBM open-sources Mac@IBM code, spreading tech to other businesses

IBM on Tuesday shared word that it's open-sourcing its Mac@IBM provisioning code, which should enable other companies to provision Macs using similar architecture.

Businesses using Mac@IBM can collect more data about their employees when performing macOS setups. Workers, meanwhile, can customize their enterprise enrollment by choosing which apps to install, including bundles of related titles.

IBM made the announcement at this week's Jamf Nation User Conference. It's unknown how many third parties may actually be seeking to adopt Mac@IBM-based code.

Apple and IBM have been partnered for several years, when they unveiled plans to develop iOS apps for other businesses. Since then their cooperation has only deepened, for example extending the Mac deployment at IBM that started in 2008.

Earlier in 2018, Apple and IBM said they would roll out in-app machine learning capabilities through Apple's Core ML platform and IBM's Watson technology.

On Tuesday Jamf said that its software would be used to manage the Apple devices of SAP, another giant in the enterprise world.

21 Comments

maestro64 19 Years · 5029 comments

About 6 years ago

I can hear the screams of the IT professions as more unnecessary jobs are eliminate. IBM has show Mac need less IT resources once deployed and now they are eliminating the need to have someone spend time setting up a new systems. So much for automation eliminating factories worker it is now eliminated the educated IT worker. I wonder what all the people in India will be doing in the future no need to tech support call centers.

rob53 13 Years · 3312 comments

In my history supporting Macs, we never really had that many IT support people anyway. What this could do, however, is get rid of all those Microsoft IT people who never could do anything more than re-image PCs. I am excited that businesses are finally understanding what we knew decades ago, that everything Apple makes is better and takes less IT support to operate properly.

volcan 10 Years · 1799 comments

rob53 said:

In my history supporting Macs, we never really had that many IT support people anyway. What this could do, however, is get rid of all those Microsoft IT people who never could do anything more than re-image PCs. I am excited that businesses are finally understanding what we knew decades ago, that everything Apple makes is better and takes less IT support to operate properly.

Sure but large businesses are usually very Windows-centric. You can bring your own Mac in most cases but good luck trying to connect over SMB, NetBios or Active Directory and custom applications for corporations are often programmed for Windows .Net with Windows server. Unless the organization standardizes on Unix and Mac like IBM there is nothing but problems for Mac users in a Windows environment, unless all their work can be accomplished through TCP/IP/web interfaces.

danvm 9 Years · 1477 comments

maestro64 said:

I can hear the screams of the IT professions as more unnecessary jobs are eliminate. IBM has show Mac need less IT resources once deployed and now they are eliminating the need to have someone spend time setting up a new systems. So much for automation eliminating factories worker it is now eliminated the educated IT worker. I wonder what all the people in India will be doing in the future no need to tech support call centers.

And MS will show you how their solutions have a lower TCO. Every companies does it, IBM, MS, Apple, Oracle, SAP, you name it. Were it really counts it's in the customer side, where needs and environments are different. You cannot expect every customer have the same experience as IBM had in their own deployment. Would be nice to see IBM talking about a customer deployment instead of their own case study.

rob53 said:

In my history supporting Macs, we never really had that many IT support people anyway. What this could do, however, is get rid of all those Microsoft IT people who never could do anything more than re-image PCs. I am excited that businesses are finally understanding what we knew decades ago, that everything Apple makes is better and takes less IT support to operate properly.

Do you really think that Apple makes it better? They don't even offer a real management tool for iOS / macOS. You have to use Jamf or even MS solutions to deploy Apple devices. And I don't think that you consider iWorks better than MS Office or Filemaker better than MS, Oracle or IBM databases. The ecosystem MS have in the enterprise is miles ahead of what Apple offer.