Overall Satisfaction with Jamf Pro
We support two services:
- A central computer lab that is open 24/5
- An equipment checkout program open to all students
- Package management - It is simple to update installation by simply adding the latest version of applications.
- Reproducibility - Once you have workflows in place, then every machine in scope will be identical to every other machine in the same scope. This lends itself to a common user experience.
- Zero-touch enrollment - A computer will configure itself based on policies and workflows such that a user is able to pull a machine out of a box, turn it on, and allow it to configure itself.
- Jamf excels in environments in which there is a one-to-one relationship between computers and users, for instance, an office. It takes some additional work to make it work in an environment such as a classroom or computer lab since that one-to-one relationship does not exist.
- Thus far, my team (and Google, for that matter) have not found a way for Jamf to natively assign names to machines. This is important when working with something like Active Directory, where each computer requires a unique name to be used for binding. Using standard command-line tools and a CSV, we have worked around this. I would like to see Jamf find a way to make this work out of the box--for instance, it should be possible to assign a name to a computer's serial number BEFORE it is ever enrolled in the first place.
- This is not Jamf's problem, per se. We have long used a tool called Deep Freeze, which allows users to have full access to a computer without being able to make permanent changes to it. Unfortunately, to deactivate Deep Freeze ("Thaw") requires a reboot. To the best of our knowledge, this makes it impossible for us to automate changes to the computers--once a reboot occurs, the policy will no longer execute.
- Ideally, we should be able to schedule a task--have the machine thaw and reboot--and make a change, followed by a "freeze" and reboot to complete the task. Thus far, this seems to be impossible.
- I would like to see Jamf find a way to have the server track the tasks it has executed in a policy such that when a computer comes back online, it can continue to execute the remaining tasks.
- We now devote most of our time to project work--improving workflows, updating apps, etc. Previously, most of our time was devoted to imaging development and deployment. Jamf automates that for us, allowing us to focus on things besides the tool itself.
We did not consider other MDM solutions since Jamf is the most mature and adopted on the market. Our previous offering was a piece of FOSS software called DepoyStudio. It worked well for a number of years, but was cumbersome and labor intensive. Ultimately, Apple made (appropriately) changes that rendered DeployStudio unusable going forward, so we knew that we would have to eventually adopt an MDM solution.
Do you think Jamf Pro delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Jamf Pro's feature set?
Yes
Did Jamf Pro live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Jamf Pro go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Jamf Pro again?
Yes