Fleetsmith announces ‘zero-cost fleet visibility product’ for Apple users

Fleetsmith — a provider of secure, automated Apple device management — has announced Fleetsmith Intelligence, which it says is the first free product providing Apple administrators with real-time visibility and insights across their entire fleet of devices. It’s also the first no-cost solution to include enrollment via Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (DEP).

With Fleetsmith Intelligence, IT administrators can answer critical security and compliance questions such as which devices are assigned to each employee, which devices are running out-of-date OS versions, and whether requirements like disk encryption, strong passwords, and screen lock are being met across the fleet, according to Zack Blum, CEO and co-founder of Fleetsmith. 

If issues are found, admins can fix them with a single click by upgrading one, a few, or all devices to Fleetsmith Managed, Fleetsmith’s subscription-based device management product. Fleetsmith Managed adds management and security tools such as OS and app installation and patching, disk encryption with key escrow, remote lock and wipe, security settings enforcement, WiFi and printer configuration, and much more.

As the number of devices across organizations continues to multiply, attack surfaces also grow, putting businesses at a higher risk for incidents such as security breaches or compromised data. Mobile security and compliance are some of the biggest challenges facing businesses today, according to a recent International Data Corporation (IDC) survey on mobility. 

Blum says Fleetsmith Intelligence provides real-time visibility into the entire device fleet, exposing business and security risks before it’s too late. With Fleetsmith Intelligence, organizations gain insights about devices in their fleet including disk encryption status, OS patch levels, and firewall settings––providing the ability to view and accurately monitor device health fleet wide, in real-time. 

Blum adds that Fleetsmith Intelligence is also the first free product to provide automatic device setup with:

• Enrollment via Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (DEP);
• Automatic local admin account creation on each device using Fleetsmith’s deep G Suite and Office 365 integrations;
• Customization of Apple’s setup assistant.

Once fleetwide visibility is achieved, the next step is to address any issues that were detected with  Fleetsmith Intelligence. As Blum explains, “The next level of value is in how you can easily fix the problems you find. With just one click, customers can turn on Fleetsmith Managed and actually mitigate the issues they are seeing.”

 Available on a subscription basis, Fleetsmith Managed is the company’s subscription-based fleet management product. It enables automated device setup—often called zero-touch deployment—by adding automatic app installation and settings enforcement capabilities to Fleetsmith Intelligence’s device setup features. This allows employees to receive a new device shipped direct from Apple or a certified retailer and become productive and secure immediately.

You can try Fleetsmith’s solutions for free at fleetsmith.com.