Silent Presentation

From Chaos to Compliance - Management and Threat Protection for Apple devices in two Higher Education Colleges

Managing and Securing Windows devices across universities is common practice and ensures devices are secure, compliant and under the control of university ICT teams. Apple devices however are often overlooked and therefore become an issue for ICT and compliance leaders.

This session will share the experiences of the University of Limerick and the University of Glasgow who will outline their respective journeys from Chaos to Compliance. 

Both organisations needed to transition into a more secure environment to understand the cyber threats touching their networks.  Introducing a comprehensive device management solution meant having the best start possible to achieve security by design in both settings. Like in many public sector organizations, it is a major part of a university’s strategy to improve cyber provisions significantly. Recent compromises to institutions in this country are a stark reminder of the cost of not having the right security. Device Management is necessary to deploy and manage the required cyber security solutions.

The Jamf suite of products is used in both organisations to achieve their compliance objectives on Apple devices. Integrations between Jamf and Microsoft solutions are part of the ecosystems, with Jamf solutions running alongside Entra ID and Microsoft Intune and reporting live into Microsoft Sentinel. Moreover, these integrations work with Jamf to enforce compliance and protect institutionally-owned devices against threats, ensuring that only trusted users on authorized devices can access university resources.

The improved security strategy with Jamf Protect allows the teams to monitor and address incidents in real time. The integration has been a key part of elevating the security provision and mitigating risk across both organisations. The device landscape has significantly changed, with the teams confident that they can equally support the two different platforms on offer. Apple devices are managed and secured out of the box offering a seamless, secure user experience.

This session is an opportunity to learn from those who have implemented a successful Mac Management strategy across their universities. Regardless of what device a user chooses to procure ICT teams are confident in their ability to secure and manage devices equally.