Reimagining Business and Tech in the Digital Age
Moving to make Apple Macintosh systems a more natural extension of IT environments dominated by Windows, Parallels today released an update for its tools for managing those systems that connect to Microsoft Active Directory (AD).
Version 4.5 of Parallels Mac Management for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) also adds patch management support for the OS X operating system as well as the ability to automate the distribution of images on those systems.
Carlos Capo, product manager for Parallels Mac Management for SCCM, says many IT organizations are often surprised to discover how many Apple Macintosh systems are being used inside their organizations. In addition, many organizations now sanction the use of these systems in order to entice millennials to work for them.
Once IT organizations find that Apple Macintosh systems make up more than 5 percent of their installed base of PCs, they need a more sophisticated tool to manage those Apple Macintosh systems.
The challenge many organizations face is that they don’t want to have to acquire and then deploy a separate set of management tools to accomplish that goal. Parallels Mac Management 4.5 for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager is designed to enable IT organizations to manage those Macs within the context of their existing management tools for Windows.
Naturally, there’s a lot of debate over what tools are best to use to manage Macs inside a corporate IT environment. While there are those who might make a case for native Macintosh management tools, the fact is that Windows PCs still dominate the desktop. As such, the path of least resistance for the Mac in those environments is probably going to involve a management framework originally designed for Windows.
