IBM-Apple relationship going strong: Now, IBM pitches Macs for enterprise IT

IBM has announced new cloud services designed to help enterprise clients integrate Macs into their IT infrastructures. This new offering from IBM MobileFirst Managed Mobility Services will allow large enterprises to order Macs and have them delivered directly to their employees without any additional set-up, imaging or configuration, IBM said. “Employees can then quickly, easily and securely gain network access, connect to email and download business applications. The services also can support personally owned Macs that are authorised in a bring-your-own-device environment.” [caption id=“attachment_2195606” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Tim Cook, Apple CEO and Ginni Rometty, IBM CEO[/caption] The new services feature the Casper Suite from JAMF Software, the software solution for helping clients set up and deploy Macs, including MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, iMac, and Mac Pro. With the combination of Casper Suite and IBM’s enterprise integration and support services, clients can work with IBM to directly procure, integrate and manage Macs across their IT infrastructures and employee bases. These services also can support clients who choose to deploy both Macs and iOS devices within their enterprises. This new offering complements existing IBM enterprise services supporting iOS devices, including iPad and iPhone, creating a comprehensive suite of services for enterprise deployment and management of Apple products. IBM also has been providing these services on a custom basis for a variety of clients and with the growing interest in adopting Macs into the enterprise, IBM is now offering them as a standard services offering. The integration services for Mac are delivered via the cloud as a software-as-a-service solution and also are available as an on-premise solution in the client’s data centre. The new IBM services allow enterprises to manage ongoing support for Macs, providing OS and image management, software application and update management, an enterprise app catalog, automatic compliance and configuration updates for security, and inventory and reporting for hardware and software.