Apple @ Work: Addigy’s Watchdog utility highlights the benefits of Apple’s standardization for device management

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates 5 different applications on a single Apple-only platform, allowing Businesses to easily and automatically deploy, manage & protect all their Apple devices. Over 38,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the deployment,  management, and security of millions of Apple devices daily. Request a FREE account today and discover how you can put your Apple fleet on auto-pilot at a price point that is hard to believe.

I’ve often said that the Apple IT community is a tight-knit one. To be honest, most of us old-timers are still shocked at how quickly Apple has become one of the dominant endpoints in the enterprise. I can still remember back when Apple didn’t even support Microsoft Exchange. We’ve come a long way as an industry and as a community. Recently, Addigy released a new WatchDog utility aimed at resolving a lingering macOS bug, and instead of releasing it for its customers only – the company released a version that fixed the bug for everyone. It highlights the close-knit vibes of the Apple community and the benefits of Apple’s standardization of device management APIs.

About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers managed an enterprise IT network from 2009 to 2021. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, 100s of Macs, and 100s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments.

The base layer of everything an enterprise device management utility does is somewhat policed by Apple. Apple builds the APIs, and then MDM vendors build their solutions on top of it. You can think about the device management APIs as a layer 1 solution. Every company builds on this foundation, and the additional functionality built is a layer 2 approach. This approach works great in most situations as Apple gets to ensure a great experience for end users, a stable approach for IT, and the flexibility to move between vendors.

The downside of this approach surfaces when there are bugs in the process. Addigy found that as many as 25% of managed devices are in this stuck state where they’re struggling to take new commands. In reality, this bug also highlights the importance of a common foundation.

A unified base layer matters

As I said, because this problem/bug is at the base layer of Apple’s device management APIs, it affects everyone. It affects everything MDM vendor, every IT professional, etc. Many of them might not even know the problem exists.

Because of this unified base layer, only one vendor has to release a fix. I really commend Addigy for releasing this WatchDog utility as a free (and ungated) download. The company could have offered it free for its customers while charging other vendors’ customers. It could have put the fix behind a gated landing page that required a corporate email address to download. It could have added “phone home” technology where the utility reported back on its uses. It didn’t, though. It’s a free download on an ungated landing page with no tracking utilities whatsoever. Anyone can download the tool, upload it as a script, and have their deployments fixed.

Addigy can only release this utility as a community-wide fix/script because everyone is using the same base layer. It highlights the importance of protocols in technology. Protocols that people can trust, build around, and build on top of. It highlights why it matters that TCP, IMAP, SMTP, etc., are the foundations of our open internet. Apple built a solution for its devices that any vendor could build around, and when a bug affected countless macOS devices, a community of Apple IT administrators could deploy a community-wide fix.

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates 5 different applications on a single Apple-only platform, allowing Businesses to easily and automatically deploy, manage & protect all their Apple devices. Over 38,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the deployment,  management, and security of millions of Apple devices daily. Request a FREE account today and discover how you can put your Apple fleet on auto-pilot at a price point that is hard to believe.