Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage, and protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
My use of my iPhone has somewhat evolved over the years. I used to want to replicate everything that my Mac could do on my iPhone, but over time, I’ve looked to my Mac as the workhorse and my iPhone as a “cloud remote” to quickly do things on the go that take minimal effort and thought processing. Apple device management is one of those things. I don’t want to manage my entire database on my iPhone. I do, however, want to do a few things. That is where tools like PocketMDM come into play.
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, 1000s of Macs, and 1000s 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.
PocketMDM is designed as a tool specifically for Apple IT managers. It aims to bridge the gap between your iPhone and your device management platforms by bringing essential automation directly to Apple Shortcuts. The app currently supports Apple Business Manager, Apple School Manager, Jamf Pro, and Microsoft Intune. I’d love to see more device management services in future versions as well.
Instead of needing to write complex scripts or rely on hosted third-party solutions, PocketMDM gives you native Apple Shortcut actions. You can use it to quickly retrieve device information or assign devices right from your iPhone.
API token storage
One of the biggest hurdles IT admins face when building their own mobile workflows is handling API tokens. Storing admin credentials in plain text inside a standard iOS Shortcut is a massive security risk.
PocketMDM solves this in a clever way. The app acts as a secure vault for your management environments. All your credentials and API tokens are securely stored in the native Apple Keychain. This ensures your sensitive authentication information remains protected by the device’s hardware while still providing fast, reliable access to the APIs you need to manage your fleet.
Use cases
The real magic of PocketMDM happens when you start building custom Apple Shortcuts. Imagine you are unboxing a new batch of MacBook Neos. Instead of going back to your desk to assign them in Apple Business Manager, you could build a Shortcut that prompts you to scan the barcode, automatically talks to the Apple Business Manager API via PocketMDM, and assigns the device to your preferred device management server. You could build similar workflows for Jamf Pro or Microsoft Intune to check device compliance or pull up an inventory record to look up various bits of information.
Pricing
PocketMDM is free to download and includes a set of free actions that let you authenticate and connect to supported device management services. To unlock the full suite of management and automation actions, PocketMDM Pro is available for $2.99 per month, $19.99 per year, or as a one-time lifetime unlock for $49.99.
If you manage Apple devices, this is an app you absolutely need to download and experiment with. It brings the power of Apple Business Manager and some popular device management services right to your fingertips without the overhead of maintaining custom code.
Download PocketMDM on the App Store for free.
Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage, and protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
