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Apple IT admins gain new tech support tool from Moysle

news
Jul 06, 20213 mins
AppleEnterprise Mobile ManagementMobile

The new feature for supporting remote workers comes amid a flurry of activity in the ‘Apple in the enterprise’ market.

Tim Cook M1 iMac
Credit: Apple

Apple’s growing place in enterprise IT means solutions providers servicing that market segment are seeing fast growth.

Screen View for remote admin

One of the larger MDM firms in the Apple/enterprise space, Mosyle, has introduced Screen View, a new feature to help IT admins provide highly secure support. This new feature lets IT use any device logged into Mosyle’s Admin Portal to view the screen of any macOS, iOS, or iPadOS device managed by the organization. That’s a useful trick when attempting to deliver tech support, advice, or training.

To protect privacy and security, the feature uses a fully encrypted peer-to-peer connection between each device, so data remains private and is not transmitted over or stored on Mosyle’s servers.

IT teams and administrators are stretched thin, managing and supporting countless devices, applications and systems,” said Mosyle founder and CEO Alcyr Araujo in a press release. He said his company is committed to consolidating and automating the steps it takes to manage, protect, and support Apple devices at work and school.

Mosyle’s news comes as the Apple in the enterprise market experiences a flurry of activity.

  • One of the leaders in the space, Jamf, continues investments in shoring up Apple platform security, finalizing its acquisition of Zero Trust Network Access firm Wandera this week.
  • Jamf recently updated its Setup and Reset products to make it much easier to manage and deploy shared iOS devices and iPads in school and enterprise environments.
  • Jamf also introduced Unlock, which lets employees make use of Face and Touch ID on their iPhones to unlock their Macs.
  • Appogee and TRUCE Software have teamed to offer fully managed iOS hardware deployments for enterprise.
  • Teradici and MacStadium are offering Mac-as-a-service, enabling easy remote employee provisioning and more.
  • Apple’s Claris subsidiary continues to develop its own enterprise and education-focused solutions for integrating and managing Apple devices.

How Screen View works

Mosyle’s Screen View has built-in protections to ensure that IT isn’t abusing the tech to check on workers surreptitiously. It works like this:

  • When an admin wants to take a look at a remote employee’s screen, they will use a fully encrypted peer-to-peer connection between each device.
  • A unique link is despatched to the remote person, which they use to enable the session.
  • The link will read like an invitation and will have a limited duration.
  • For an added layer of privacy, the end user must approve and initiate each session before it begins.
  • It is possible for either party to end the sharing session at any point.

What sets Screen View apart is that this system integrates with an enterprise-ready MDM system, which provides IT with a one-stop shop with which to securely access and interrogate remote devices. That’s pretty important when working with confidential data.

Screen View also meshes well in the emerging environment of remote and hybrid working. IT teams are also becoming more mobile, so solutions like this one should help remotely distributed enterprises maintain complex, remotely managed workforces. Hybrid workplaces are unlikely to disappear, after all.

Screen View is available today with Mosyle Fuse and Mosyle Manager Premium; it works with Safari, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

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jonny_evans

Hello, and thanks for dropping in. I'm pleased to meet you. I'm Jonny Evans, and I've been writing (mainly about Apple) since 1999. These days I write my daily AppleHolic blog at Computerworld.com, where I explore Apple's growing identity in the enterprise. You can also keep up with my work at AppleMust, and follow me on Mastodon, LinkedIn and (maybe) Twitter.