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iOS enterprise deployment presentations from MacIT now online
Held concurrently with Macworld/iWorld 2013, MacIT is a conference dedicated to the deployment of Mac and iOS products in enterprise. Our own Mike Rose delivered a great writeup on this year's MacIT, and now a number of the presentations given at the conference have been made available in PDF form for those who weren't able to attend in person. Enterprise iOS has rounded them up, and will be adding to its list as more authors contribute the presentations in digital form. Some of the current offerings include "7 iPad Deployment Mistakes," "App Deployment Strategies for iOS" and "The Changing Role of IT to Service Provider." If you're an IT professional whose company is one of the many turning to iOS in enterprise settings, they're all must-reads.
MacIT 2013 kicks off with admin overview, nostalgia
After a Wednesday pre-conference day filled with technical workshops, the MacIT 2013 event (colocated with Macworld/iWorld at Moscone West) kicked off with a panel discussion featuring John Welch, Nadyne Richmond, Ben Greisler, Arek Dreyer and more. The panel speakers provided quick overviews of the Mac and iOS enterprise landscape, including the promise and perils of BYOD, the role of the Mac mini Server in replacing Apple's legacy rackmounted Xserve, and the security risks facing the Mac platform in large companies. Following the panel, Chip Pearson from JAMF Software reviewed 20 years of Mac sysadmin history, including enthusiastic shout-outs to Paul Kent and his IDG team for facilitating MacIT; Neil Ticktin and MacTECH for their continuing coverage and events supporting Mac admins; and the rebel cloners of Power Computing, who "out-Apple'd Apple" in their enthusiasm for the Mac ecosystem. Pearson recalled how Power Computing's appearance at Macworld Expo in 1996 included a parking lot bungee cord jump, reserved for people who bought one of their machines at the show. He also noted that a company representative had a fix for the confusing interleaved memory DIMM requirements of the time, where slots had to be populated in pairs: "We told Apple, instead of slots A1 and A2, B1 and B2 -- just make it R2 and D2, C3 and P0 and everyone will just get it!" Pearson connected the three important ingredients of supporting the enterprise (great people, ideas and technology) with his exhortation to improve education through technology. He asked the audience to investigate and understand how technology can improve education, lead through sharing expertise and time, and accelerate achievement by both students and educators. "We will all benefit by those smart students coming out and solving the problems we all inherited, and some that we are creating today," he said. "If you know something, take the opportunity to teach it. That's why we come together here, and at the Penn State Mac Admins conference; to learn." The influx of traditional Windows sysadmins to the Mac administration field should be welcomed, according to Pearson. "If it's guys in ties, remember that some of the Mac users you're supporting also have to wear suits and ties to work." He also noted that enterprise is still trying to figure out what to do about the influx of iPads into big business, and he thinks 2013 is the year that we will start to figure out some best practices. "Let's figure out the best [use cases] for the iPad in business first, and then worry about some of the 2.0 stuff... The old models are imperfect; mobile management is not the same as computer management." Pearson ended his presentation with a tribute to Mac management publications, sites, products and technologies paired with the "Here's to the crazy ones" ad narration, and received an enthusiastic ovation from the ample MacIT crowd. MacIT continues through Saturday at Moscone West.
MacTech 2011 pulls in huge attendance, videos available now
MacTech Conference 2011 was held this week in Los Angeles, California, and since last year, this conference has definitely grown. There were almost twice as many people as last year's event, says MacTech publisher Neil Ticktin, reaching a total of almost 350 people. There were plenty of great speakers in both the developer and IT tracks of the conference, and highlights include Guy Kawasaki's great keynote speech, an impassioned series of questions from Aaron Hillegass, a demo of the Simian deployment software that got the Mac IT guys talking, and a to-the-point talk from Andy Ihnatko about how developers can put together strong relationships with the press to help promote their apps. Everybody at the conference seemed to have a great time throughout, and during coffee breaks, lunches, and even the bowling party held last night at Universal CityWalk, Mac devs and IT professionals chatted and networked together in the strong Mac development community. If you weren't at the conference itself, videos of all of the presentations are now available online, in a bundle for $449, or individually for $20 a piece. There's a lot of wisdom hidden in those, whether you get one or the whole bunch, so if something on the schedule piques your interest, do check them out. And the MacTech train is going to roll on -- Ticktin says a new one-day, specially focused event called MacTech InDepth will be held on December 7 in San Francisco, and both MacTech Bootcamp and MacTech Conference will be on again next year in 2012. Thanks to MacTech for graciously hosting the show this week for us as well. This year's conference really showed that the event is a great place for the Mac IT and development community to touch base and learn how better to work with the platform, both from peers and influential speakers.
Michael Bartosh MacIT Scholarship Fund
The organizers of the MacWorld Conference and Expo are setting up a memorial scholarship in honor of Mac author, Michael Bartosh, who recently passed away from a tragic accident in Tokyo. The Michael Bartosh MacIT Scholarship will pay the travel expenses and MacIT conference fees for one or more University/College-age Network Engineering students. Knowing Michael and his work, I can't think of a better way to honor him. Bravo.
