MDM solution for small education institution.
stevepapp
Joined:
Sun, Oct 28, 00:26
I am a principal in a small education institution in Sydney Australia. We currently have 30 iPads to support our programs.
I am after a MDM solution that will do all the typical Apple Configurator stuff but will also allow the distribution of iBook Author files as well as music and video to the iPads. This is essential for now we are using our iPads.
Our funding is limited so I am after a MDM solution that is not expensive and does not have subscription or renewal fees etc. If it was just a piece of software like Configurator it would-be great.
Alternatively is there another way of getting .ibook files/video/photos onto the ipads once they are supervised?
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chimby
You can't push out audio,
You can't push out audio, photos and video using an MDM. You may be able to load it via Configurator.
You should be able to push out iBooks content via an MDM, or at least offer it on a self service portal like in Casper suite.
antzinoz
MDM
Hi Steve,
Check out Meraki http://www.meraki.com/products/systems-manager/ they have a free MDM solution
However audio and video can't be pushed out from this.
If the audio/video is available from a windows share have a look School elockers http://apac.schoolelockers.com/ they're doing some cool stuff.
Uroshnor
Building blocks are there already
Pushing media out to devices isn't a Mobile Device Management function - its CONTENT management - they are two separate things.
Apple Configurator blends these two concepts a bit, as it allows loading of some App data, and is low cost and pretty simple to use at that scale of number of devices, but it suffers from the "update over USB only" problem in terms of how it scales.
If you are already deploying with Apple Configurator, then you have at least one Mac in the organisation, so combinging AC with OS X Server with Profile Manager is a low cost MDM option if you have the hardware to spare, and it has an easy to set up Wiki that can host content. You can push notifications of updates, but not the actual data (the client device would need to have the user respond to the notification and pull the data)
With regards to pushing content, as you are an educational institution, you may be able to create and leverage a private iTunes U instance - this is zero cost, and can push notifications of updates to iBooks and other content to devices.
If you have an existing CMS - like say Blackboard, many of these already have an iOS client App.Typically these can sync updates to content over the air.
Tim Williams
Yes, you can do this with MDM
Absolute Manage can push media files, including audio, video, iBooks and others, out to mobile devices. This functionality is referred to as Mobile COntent Management, as Uroshnor says, but it does not require a separate software product.
Mark Pluijmakers
iTunes U
iTunes U courses can also be used to distribute different kinds of media. You can try this for free, to see whether this solution is fit for you. If this suits your needs, contact your Apple Education representative for mor information on how to implement this school-wide.
rob
Absolute Manage
Thanks for this info. Just had a look at Absolute Manage and it looks very good indeed.