Apple @ Work is an exclusive presentation from MosyleApple’s only unified platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates into a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage and protect Apple devices at work. More than 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to keep millions of Apple devices up and running effortlessly and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TEST today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
WWDC has come and gone once again, and a number of key updates are coming to the IT world this fall. A note before we begin: now It’s time to test workflows, applications, etc. of your device. Bugs that are reported early in the beta process are the ones that get fixed.
With macOS 27 and iOS 27, the transition to declarative device management is no longer a forward-looking roadmap notice from Apple. is the standard. By moving legacy configurations to the declarative model and introducing powerful new native controls, Apple gives IT departments the tools to keep Apple the best IT endpoint provider.
About Apple@Work: Bradley Chambers has been an Apple IT administrator since 2009. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise-grade WiFi, thousands of Macs, and thousands of iPads, Bradley will highlight the ways Apple IT administrators deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, share stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments.
The end of the legacy profile
The biggest IT announcement is the migration of legacy configurations to DDM. With the new ProfileAssetReference key, IT teams can now include legacy configuration profiles within the declarative model. However, there is something critical we need to know: system processes now enforce TLS 1.2+ requirements for device management services. If a device management provider is not updated to meet these standards, essential management tasks such as enrollment, profile installation, and software updates will simply fail. This is the first thing every manager should audit as soon as possible.
Additionally, devices running the new operating systems will no longer restore device management information from a backup. Instead, they will automatically run through automated device enrollment once the restore is complete, ensuring the device receives the current managed state instead of an outdated configuration. This alone will save helpdesks countless hours of troubleshooting.
Apple software and intelligence updates
Apple officially eliminated legacy software update management. Software update commands and queries no longer work on new versions of the operating system. IT teams are now absolutely forced to use declarative software update management to configure and apply updates.
Apple is also moving management of the device’s smart systems entirely to declarative settings. IT teams can gain granular control to allow or deny device-wide Apple Intelligence features, including Genmoji, Image Playground, and Writing Tools. If you don’t want these features running in your environment, you finally have a supported way to disable them.
Terminal security and privacy
In macOS 27, Apple offers an enterprise-grade solution for running apps. Using the existing (and trusted) Endpoint Security framework, administrators can now implement declarative rules to allow or deny the execution of specific application binaries. This is a big win for security compliance, especially for organizations that need to avoid running unapproved command-line tools or unmanaged binaries.
To combat user message overload (this has been a real problem), Apple is introducing a new consolidated privacy consent message that appears when an app is launched for the first time. IT administrators can provide a custom justification chain and recommend default privacy settings, making it much more likely that users will make the right decision when granting permissions.
Identity management and onboarding
Identity management will receive some attention this fall. Platform SSO is evolving to support web-based authentication flows directly in the login window. This provides full support for modern MFA, custom identity provider flows, and QR code logins. In shared device environments, this resolves authentication friction while allowing IT to require a second factor via Touch ID for both device login and FileVault unlock.
For onboarding, IT teams now have direct control over Mac to Mac data migrations during the Setup Wizard. Administrators can specify exactly which subfolders and files are required for migration, completely removing decision-making from the end user. The return to service also saw major improvements, notably the ability to set the device’s language and region directly in the device auto-enrollment profile and apply a mandatory software update to a monitored device when it receives the wipe command.
Device status monitoring
The Status Channel is evolving into a proactive device status monitor. Managed devices can now report the status of hardware components such as camera, Face ID, etc., directly to your device’s management server. When something goes wrong, the new TriggerEnhancedLogCollection command allows IT teams to trigger remote log collection on monitored devices to dig deeper into the problem.
Volume licensing for application subscriptions
The addition of a volume licensing mechanism for application subscriptions is exciting, as it finally brings the world of modern, SaaS-based software distribution to the same streamlined management workflows that have long existed for standard distribution of volume purchase programs. Apple never provided volume licensing for traditional IAP, so I’m glad to see them addressing it for subscriptions. From a procurement standpoint, this is a big win for smaller SaaS providers.
Wrap
Apple Business was announced earlier this year and is expanding to more than 200 countries and regions. This was a big update that Apple could have saved for WWDC as well. Overall, there are a lot of interesting improvements this year. DDM is the standard and Apple is also improving remote IT support with new tools.
As always, check out the video either read aware of all the technical details.
Apple @ Work is an exclusive presentation from MosyleApple’s only unified platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates into a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage and protect Apple devices at work. More than 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to keep millions of Apple devices up and running effortlessly and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TEST today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
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