Introduction to Apple platform deployment
Whether your organisation has 10 devices or 100,000, Apple deployments fit easily into your existing infrastructure. From a myriad of deployment options, you can select the right one to meet the needs of your organisation. You can also link Apple School Manager or Apple Business Manager and your chosen device management service.
For example, if you want to protect organisational information while maintaining individual privacy for individuals who choose to use their personal devices, choose User Enrolment. Or if you want to maintain a higher level of control on organisation-owned devices, choose supervision and Device Enrolment or account-driven Device Enrolment. Or if you want to automate the setup process of your devices, you can use Automated Device Enrolment. In that case, you can configure every iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro exactly the way you want, and they’ll be ready to go from the start.
Using Apple School Manager or Apple Business Manager, you can also easily buy and distribute apps and books — all from one place. You can also integrate with identity providers (IdPs), Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra ID.
Apple Platform Deployment covers every aspect of deploying Apple hardware, operating systems, apps and services, organised into these areas:
What’s new: View a summary of new security- and management-related features in Apple operating systems, services and apps. It also covers the latest updates to the Apple device management framework.
Plan the deployment: Learn about device management, how to select a device management service developer that meets your needs, how you can use different deployment models and enrolment methods to provide flexibility for your organisation, and how to use Apple School Manager or Apple Business Manager to automatically add purchased devices from a participating Apple Authorised Reseller or network provider.
Prepare your environment: Optimise your network, learn about deployments over mobile networks, and configure Mac computers to cache content for all Apple devices so you minimise bandwidth consumption on content downloads.
Use identity services: Take advantage of the default integration of Kerberos into Apple software, and the best methods to connect IdPs through federation — all for seamless, consistent logins for users.
Deploy devices with a Managed Apple Account: Using Apple School Manager or Apple Business Manager, you can create Managed Apple Accounts. Your organisation owns and manages the Managed Apple Accounts, which your users sign in with on their devices so they can use supported Apple services, including iCloud on the web from a Mac.
Review the setup process: Decide how the setup process appears to your users.
Configuration profile options: Learn what management and restrictions can be placed on Apple devices.
Manage software updates: Control how operating system updates are provided to Apple devices.
Distribute content: Learn how to easily distribute apps and books to devices and users in a variety of ways.
Integrate with networks: Review specific Wi-Fi specifications for Apple hardware and select the best content filter process for your organisation.
Ensure device security: Learn how to lock, locate and erase your lost or stolen Apple devices.
Device management settings: Review complete lists of device management and declarative device management payloads, restrictions, commands and queries, and identify which of those work with each hardware type or operating system version.
Additional resources: Join AppleSeed for IT, get additional AppleCare coverage, take advantage of professional services or locate an Apple consultant to help with your deployment.