IT

Become an IT expert with this 5-star boot camp

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Become an IT expert with this 5-star rated bootcamp course pack, now only $80.
Start an exciting new career in cybersecurity with this 200-hour training bundle that costs just $3 a course.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Whether you want to start an exciting new career as a cybersecurity professional, take on lucrative freelance or contract work, or add desirable new skills to your LinkedIn profile, this top-rated cybersecurity developer and IT bundle can teach you the latest essential skills.

What’s more, you can learn on your own time, and from anywhere, with the course pack’s 400 hours of training.

It’s a steal, too. Usually $7,774, you can now grab it for only $79.99. That’s just $3 a course — the best price you’ll find for this bundle online.

Manage and secure a diverse fleet of devices with Scalefusion

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Scalefusion MDM: How does your IT department manage all the devices your employees use, in all the places they use them?
How does your IT department manage all the devices your employees use, in all the places they use them?
Image: Scalefusion

This MDM post is brought to you by Scalefusion.

With the recent surge in employees working via smartphones, tablets and laptops from practically anywhere, it’s no surprise mobile device management, aka MDM, has become a crucial tool for organizations large and small. Then add in the growth of cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps, plus companies letting employees use their own devices (BYOD).

It all adds up to needing an MDM provider you can depend on. These days, you need something that serves the IT department’s needs while remaining easy for users to navigate. And it should work across operating systems and device types.

With Scalefusion, you can get up and running fast with a vast array of devices, and even expand your fleet, without having to worry about engaging multiple MDM providers.

Manage your company’s hardware easily and affordably with Desktop Central

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Manage your company's devices across the workforce and various platforms with Desktop Central from ManageEngine.
Manage your company's devices across the workforce and various platforms with Desktop Central.
Image: ManageEngine

This UEM post is brought to you by ManageEngine.

If you manage technology for a company, you need all the help you can get. Not every business has the resources for a big, well-equipped IT department. Yet you might still need to manage, automate and secure all sorts of devices across a workforce and varied systems.

That’s where ManageEngine’s Desktop Central comes in. Its unified endpoint management system is affordable, feature-rich and easy to use, thanks to a clean, intuitive design.

Jamf makes it easy to manage employees’ Apple devices, both remote and onsite

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Jamf excels at Apple enterprise management.
Jamf excels at Apple Enterprise Management.
Photo: Jamf

This Apple Enterprise Management post is presented by Jamf.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic changed how employers and employees operate, remote work had become increasingly prevalent. By 2016, 43% of the U.S. workforce worked from home at least to some extent, according to Gallup. The pandemic added millions more and might tilt the balance toward remote work permanently.

So, now more than ever, organizations large and small must figure out how to manage, connect and secure all devices their staff members use, in workplaces and remotely. For enterprises that prefer to have iPhones, Macs and iPads in the mix, effective Apple Enterprise Management is crucial.

Pixar just posted a dream job for Mac nerds

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Toy Story
Do you have what it takes to join Pixar's posse?
Photo: Pixar

Pixar is looking for a good Mac nerd to join its support team.

If you’ve ever dreamed of working for one of the most iconic animation companies in the world, but don’t have any actual animation skills, this might be your best chance.

How BYOD can be as fun as BYOB

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VMWare AirWatch BYOD
Employees prefer their own iPhones. AirWatch could be your BYOD solution.
Photo: William Iven/Pixabay CC

This post is brought to you by VMware AirWatch.

Let’s face it: Asking a person to carry around two devices all the time, one for work and one for play, is just inefficient. When organizations implement overbearing management or ignore privacy concerns, they almost force users to carry a device for work and a device for personal use.

While a few employees may enjoy the air-gap separation of church and state, most people buckle under the stress of having two separate devices to potentially forget in a cab or leave on the airport bathroom sink (true story!).

Is containerization necessary for iOS devices at work?

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Everybody wants to bring their own device to work. AirWatch takes the hassle out of BYOD.
Everybody wants to bring their own device to work. AirWatch takes the hassle out of BYOD.
Photo: William Iven/Pixabay CC

This post is brought to you by VMware AirWatch.

If you know what the word “containerization” means, you probably work in IT (or you’re tech-savvy and adventurous enough to run afoul of your IT department on a regular basis). Containerization is the method of securing a device for corporate use by putting a part of it behind some type of authentication — without managing the actual device.

It’s a common practice in the corporate world, especially for bring your own device (or BYOD) environments, because containerization is often viewed as more lightweight than mobile device management, aka MDM. Users also may assume that MDM is overly intrusive and that containerization is a good compromise.

However, many of these issues are already solved for iOS. By leveraging Apple’s built-in privacy protections, AirWatch allows IT departments to preserve the native device experience while protecting corporate data.

Jumpstart a new career in IT management and security with 4 essential exam trainings [Deals]

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original_2033_UltimateIT_SecurityBundle_MF-Primary

Thinking about a new career in IT management and security, but not sure where to start? We’ve made it easy. This bundle from iCollege packages together four essential certification courses that train you exactly on what you need to know. Get it for $59 at Cult of Mac Deals today—at 94% off, a deal this good doesn’t come around often.

This Fall Brings Tons Of Ways To Become A Mac And iOS IT Expert

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This week's MacSysAdmin 2012 Conference in Sweden kicks off a line of Mac/iOS conferences and training oppotunities for IT professionals.
This week's MacSysAdmin 2012 Conference in Sweden kicks off a line of Mac/iOS conferences and training opportunities for IT professionals.

While many Apple fans and IT professionals that support iOS devices in the workplace are eagerly awaiting tomorrow’s Apple announcement, a group of Apple in the enterprise experts are meeting at MacSysAdmin 2012 – a conference for European IT professionals tasked with managing Macs and iOS devices in business, education, and other workplace settings. The annual conference traditionally posts videos of its sessions online for free (as does the Penn State MacAdmins Conference that was held in the U.S. this spring).

That isn’t the only major conference for Mac and iOS IT professionals, however. October brings two other major events (one of them free) and there are a number of excellent smaller events scheduled throughout the fall.

How To Deploy iOS 6 In Business The Right Way [Feature]

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iOS 6 has lots of business potential, but having a plan about rolling it out is critical.
iOS 6 has lots of business potential, but having a plan about rolling it out is critical.

With the release of iOS 6, Apple will offer business users a range of new features. A few of which are VIP email filtering (already in Mountain Lion) with custom notifications, more options when declining a phone call on the iPhone, much-needed privacy options, and Apple’s new Do Not Disturb feature – which should help some mobile professionals to “switch off” after work and maybe even get a good night’s sleep.

iOS updates are generally designed to be user-friendly and easy enough that anyone can manage to install them. As with any major OS or business critical software upgrade, however, there may be unforeseen issues with iOS 6 – particularly when it comes to internal iOS apps and iOS access to enterprise systems.

An iOS 6 upgrade policy and strategy is something that every IT department should have in place before Apple releases iOS 6. For businesses that actively support user devices in the workplace through a BYOD (bring your own device) program, that upgrade strategy is even more critical.

Good Keeps Your Work From Spilling Over Into Your Personal Life On Your iPhone Or iPad

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The latest release of Good for Enterprise delivers more security and separation of work and personal data on an iPhone or iPad.
The latest release of Good for Enterprise delivers more security and separation of work and personal data on an iPhone or iPad.

One of the first secure business solutions for the iPhone and iPad was Good for Enterprise, a secure collaboration tool that allows companies to separate business email, calendar, and contact systems from Apple’s standard Mail, Calendar, and Contacts apps. Going beyond simply separating work accounts and data from a user’s personal accounts, Good’s alternatives securely encrypt all data and must be unlocked using credentials other than the passcode used to unlock an iOS device.

Good released a significant update to Good for Enterprise this week, one that makes the solution more streamlined, user-friendly, and offers powerful new features – some of which are worth considering for their business functionality as well as their innate security.

What IT Wants To See In iOS 6 [Feature]

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iOS 6 will deliver a lot of business features, but what about enterprise/IT integration?
iOS 6 will deliver a lot of business features, but what about enterprise/IT integration?

It’s been over two years since Apple unveiled iOS 4 with mobile management features designed to make the iPhone and iPad a significantly better corporate citizen. During those years, the landscape of business and enterprise mobility has changed dramatically. RIM has collapsed and will never truly recover, Microsoft has doubled down on the interface it launched late in 2010 with no guarantee of success, and Android has become much more enterprise friendly. Perhaps more important is the fact that idea of mobile management and security has shifted from a focus on devices to a focus on securing data and managing mobile apps.

As all this has happened, Apple’s mobile management framework, which is the system that all mobile management vendors plug into in order to secure and manage iOS devices, has essentially stagnated. With iOS 6 on the horizon, lets look at the areas that Apple needs to address if it wants iOS to remain one of the preferred mobile platforms for business.

VMWare Targets Macs In Business With New Fusion Professional Release

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VMWare launches business/enterprise edition of its virtualization software for Macs.
VMWare finally integrates Fusion with other VMWare enterprise products and functionality.

VMWare announced the newest version of VMWare Fusion, its Mac virtualization product, this week. In doing so it also launched its first business or enterprise version of the popular tool for running Windows and other operating systems on Mac workstations. Dubbed Fusion Professional, the new solution has a range of features that are likely to appeal to IT professionals in both business and education.

How Hard Is It To Get iPads Into The Hands Of Thousands Of Students?

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Lexington School District One in South Carolina shows what it takes to to roll out iPads to thousands of students.
Lexington School District One in South Carolina shows what it takes to roll out iPads to thousands of students.

Many school districts around the country are embarking on new territory this back to school season – deploying hundreds or thousands of iPads to students. Most of the deployments will be one-to-one initiatives where every student receives a school-owned iPad to use for this school year or their entire scholastic career. Planning such a roll out isn’t easy, but schools and districts making the shift this year have the advantage of looking what worked and didn’t work from counterparts that pioneered the iPad in the classroom last year.

One school district, Lexington County School District One of South Carolina, has served as a model for many other schools around the country. The district offers a lot of insight into the technical requirements, education policy issues, and roll out processes in such a colossal undertaking.

Unlike Most Workers, Working At Home Via iPhone Or iPad Improves The Work/Life Balance Of IT Pros

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The iPhone and iPad are top mobile tools for IT pros and help them maintain work/life balance.
The iPhone and iPad are top mobile tools for IT pros and help them maintain work/life balance.

A handful of studies recently have looked at the impact of the iPhone, iPad, and other mobile devices used for both work and personal pursuits is having on the work/life balance for professionals across a range of industries. One recent study showed mobile devices have contributed to the average American working seven hours each week, the equivalent of a full work day, out of the office and after hours. Another pointed how that many of us will work while on vacation thanks to our mobile devices.

For one segment of the workforce, however, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices and their ubiquitous connectivity have actually improved the work/life balance. That group is salaried IT professionals.

RIM’s BlackBerry Loses The Mobile Security Crown To Apple’s iPhone and iPad

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IT administrators have finally warmed up to the iPhone and now rank it as more secure than the BlackBerry.
IT administrators have finally warmed up to the iPhone and now rank it as more secure than the BlackBerry.

The perception of the BlackBerry as the most secure and manageable mobile platform seems to be faltering. According to a new report, senior IT administrators now consider Apple’s iOS to be the most secure and manageable platform – despite the fact that RIM offers ten times the number of security and device management policies that Apple provides in iOS.

Apple Is Still Failing When It Comes To Selling Apps To Businesses And Schools

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Apple's volume purchase program falls short for many schools and businesses.
Apple's volume purchase program falls short for many schools and businesses.

Apple’s Volume Purchase Program (VPP) is the company’s half-hearted attempt to deliver some form of enterprise licensing program for the iOS App Store. The program does make it marginally easier for businesses to bulk purchase and deploy apps to iPhones and iPads than telling employees to buy apps and then reimbursing them, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. As we reported earlier this summer, many businesses and school still feel Apple doesn’t meet their app purchase and deployment needs.

Mobile app management (MAM) vendor App 47 summed up some of the key issues and how it can help companies deal with them as part of the company’s summer lecture series on app management.

Thunderbolt + Lightning = Fast And Easy Mountain Lion Installs For Business, Education [Video]

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FileWave's new free app makes deploying Lion/Mountain Lion incredibly easy.
FileWave's new free app makes deploying Lion/Mountain Lion incredibly easy.

FileWave launched a new free app called Lightning this week. The new app makes quick and easy work of deploying Mountain Lion (and Lion) to multiple Macs, particularly recent Macs with Thunderbolt. It can be used to roll out existing master images that a business or school has already created as well as a base OS X install that can be customized with a range of files and applications.

Study Shows Most IT Departments Fail To Explain Or Enforce iPhone/iPad Security

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A new study shows that IT departments are dropping the ball when it comes to explaining and enforcing mobile security.
A new study shows that IT departments are dropping the ball when it comes to mobile security.

Another study of the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon concludes that the trend of employees bringing the personal iPhones, iPads, and other devices into the office shows no sign of slowing down. It also confirms previous reports that indicate many personal devices being used in the workplace don’t have even basic security features enabled.

The study by Coalfire, a company the specializes in IT risk management services, paints a particularly grim picture of the lack of security for iOS and Android devices in the workplace. With the BYOD trend show no signs of slowing or ending, Coalfire CEO Rick Dakin, notes that companies cannot afford to keep ignoring mobile security concerns.

How One Company Made A Multi-Million Dollar Blunder In Buying 14,000 iPads

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Coming soon to a Department of Defense near you?
What can businesses learn from a company that spent millions of dollars on thousands of iPads without knowing how they'd be used?

I’ve been a big proponent of the iPad in business since Apple first announced its tablet more than two and a half years ago. In that time, the iPad has more than proved its value in companies of all different sizes and across virtually every industry. That said, the iPad isn’t a fit for every job within every workplace. If a company is considering investing in iPads for its employees, one of the first things that company and its IT leaders need understand is how the iPad will be used.

That seems like a pretty basic step in the procurement process, but it’s one that seems to be getting overlooked by some companies – including one very large enterprise company that should have known better.

Apperian Agrees That The Future Of Mobile Management Is All About The Apps

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Mobile app management vendor Apperian responds to our post on the future of mobile management.
Mobile app management vendor Apperian responds to our post on the future of mobile management.

Earlier this week, I took a look at the ways mobile management has changedsince Apple introduced mobile management features in iOS 4 two years ago. The biggest change has been the evolution of what constitutes effective and secure mobile management, which has shifted from securing the physical and operating system features of iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices to securing the business data that is stored on those devices. That shift has refocused IT leaders and professionals on the need to secure data by securing mobile apps – a type of solution referred to as mobile app management or MAM.

Our friends over at Apperian, one of the major MAM vendors, decided to share their thoughts with me (and you) in a video. Check it out after the jump.

Zoho Extends Enterprise Cloud Services With New Server Monitoring App For iPhone

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Server monitoring tool Site24x7 offers easy remote monitoring for iPhone-toting IT Pros
Server monitoring tool Site24x7 offers easy remote monitoring for iPhone-toting IT Pros

Site24x7 announced its new iPhone app this week. Site24x7 is a robust enterprise server monitoring solution by the Zoho group, which is best known among iOS users for its Zoho Docs productivity suite.

Site24x7 offers a range of enterprise features for web servers that are hosting critical interactive web apps and cloud services as well as other mission critical services like internal and external DNS service and mail services. In addition to simple reports and alerts about a server issue the Site24x7 can be used to tune servers for optimal performance and uptime.

MacTech Conference 2012 Registration Opens With Early Bird And Education Discounts

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Pre-registration open for this fall's MacTech Conference 2012.
Registration is available for this fall's MacTech Conference 2012.

Registration is now open for MacTech Conference 2012. The annual conference, which is a great learning and networking experience for IT professionals and developers, will be held October 17 – 19 in Los Angeles. A pre-registration discount is available for anyone who registers by the end of August.

The conference is sponsored by MacTech magazine and was launched in 2010, the year that Apple chose to focus its annual Worldwide Developers Conference solely on iOS. Since then, the conference has grown into a major event for IT professionals that need to support Macs and/or iOS devices in business, enterprise, and education environments. The conference has also become a serious event for Mac and iOS developers.

Education IT Pros Petition Apple To “Fix” Bonjour

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IT Pros like the idea of Bonjour, AirPlay, and AirPrint, but feel they don't fit will on college campuses.
IT Pros like the idea of Bonjour, AirPlay, and AirPrint, but feel they don't fit will on college campuses.

An online petition has been created to try to convince Apple to make changes to its Bonjour network discovery service and related technologies including AirPlay and AirPrint. The petition is asking Apple to redesign Bonjour and other services to deliver a better fit with education and enterprise networks. It was started by Lee Badman, wireless network architect for Syracuse University, on behalf of the Higher Ed Wireless Networking Admin Group at Educause, a non-profit resource organization for IT staff working in higher education.

Apple Begins Offering Mountain Lion Training And Certification Options For IT Pros

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Following the launch of Mountain Lion, Apple has started rolling out Mountain Lion IT certifications.
Following the launch of Mountain Lion, Apple has started rolling out Mountain Lion IT certifications.

Apple has launched its first Mountain Lion training guide and certification for IT professionals. The certification is the Mountain Lion edition of the Apple Certified Associate – Mac Integration certification, which can be viewed as the introductory Mac IT certification.

Apple began offering the certification following last year’s launch of Lion. Unlike Apple’s other certification options, Apple provides a free guide to the material on the Mac Integration Basics Exam on its training site. You can also register and take the exam online for $65. Should you fail the exam, Apple will let you retake the exam at no additional charge.