What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is to manage everything Apple in our environment. This includes everything from assigning the asset to the user, controlling licensing via the App Store, custom policies, and configurations.
The goal is to ease the burden on our Service Desk, while also enabling the user to be more self-sufficient.
In the past, I have used many MDM solutions and most of the time it came down to poor documentation with them compared to Jamf. We found the resources provided were more then enough to get us up and running. Plus, the continued support from their staff has been awesome!
How has it helped my organization?
We have found Jamf to be the critical part of everything.
Having the ability to automate our workflows has been great. Also, having the knowledge base of other Mac Admins at our disposal with the Jamf Nation, that's something that very few if any, MDM providers have.
We currently have a zero-touch workflow, where we are able to deploy the full MS Office Suite, complete encryption, and block activation lock, all while the device is being enrolled for the first time.
The user doesn't have to reach out to IT at all during the process, which definitely improves the onboarding experience.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is Jamf Nation. It contains valuable information, tips, tricks, and resources to go to when you might have issues. Oftentimes, the issue you are facing isn't something new at all. There are always others who have run into it and can provide valuable insight to resolving it. If it is something completely new, you have a plethora of other admins at your disposal who are able to quickly assist you.
Integrated patch management is easy to keep your software up to date on devices
Painless app deployment means that we can simply package and deploy. With some other MDMs, you have to convert to a proprietary file or have to upload multiple files to properly complete the loop.
What needs improvement?
One of the big areas in need of improvement is automated device naming for computers. You can do this via mobile devices in the pre-stage but not for computers. Having the ability to assign devices to a specific pre-stage enrollment group, and having said group identify all of the systems via a specific prefix/suffix, would benefit us a lot and keep better consistency when it comes to users' machine names.
Improved Patch Management is something that is in the works, I know, but having access to more applications or even improving the method to organizing/configuring patch management will be beneficial. Currently, setting it up is a painful process.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Jamf Pro for the past four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, our experience has been very good. There have been instances of downtime, whether it be scheduled or not, but for the most part, everything has been up and running consistently.
The downtime I'm referring to is either scheduled maintenance (because we are a cloud hosted environment) or there have been server outages with AWS. Overall though you can quickly pull up details regarding those pieces.
From the perspective of stability with the product on a day to day basis, its stellar. Being cloud hosted we have been able to consistently add new policies, devices, scripts, running things every 15 minutes on our fleet and never any hiccups.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We use Jamf Pro's hosted services. Scalability has never come up and performance has always been top-notch. The only slowness is when your internet is lacking.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would say tech support has been great overall. Sometimes, it's a bit tricky to get the point across or even to identify the root cause, and it might take a couple of back and forth encounters, but once that clears up then it's a smooth experience.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before we implemented Jamf at a previous workplace, we were using AirWatch to manage our mobile devices and binding our Macs to AD using Centrify. We switched to Jamf to improve mobility for our users as well as alleviate account issues with binding.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty straightforward, to be honest.
You needed to configure some prerequisites with Apple (ABM, APNS, VPP) but once everything was up and running, the rest was pretty seamless. The hardest part is taking a high-level look at your environment and determining how you want to manage the devices with the various scopes.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it via Jamf directly.
What was our ROI?
It is hard to put exact numbers on ROI but it's also hard to even think about the things we are doing now if we take Jamf out of the picture.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's hard to say with this.
A lot of the resources are great and enable Admins to configure the environment solo for the most part. I would recommend you have at least one of the Admins go through the training course to better enable themselves.
Depending on how much support you require, it might make sense to add that to the licensing agreement. I've seen the difference in the support structures, first hand, and I definitely enjoyed the dedicated support tiers.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did a POC for AirWatch (which we had for mobile already), InTune (back then, it was very much in its infancy), and Jamf.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.