iTunes Configuration Utility is a tool to create and inject XML profiles into the device for management purposes (configure WIFI, email, restrictions, etc...). It doesn't deploy apps, activate the device (not necessary since iOS 5), perform backups/restore (you can actually do this via command line). It also doesn't handle firmware upgrades (The only tool publicly available from Apple that is semi-useful for deployment is Xcode (you can chain and deploy firmware on multiple devices at a time).

Without jailbreaking, your options for sane management are near zero. Pick a MDM, build a workflow that makes sense to you and gain enough support from above so that you write the dept. bible (which will need constant revisions as you continually realize something else you could have done differently).

Managing these things with anything resembling enterprise sensibility is a lesson in pain. I've got somewhere close to 2500 of them on the network... I think of little else these days.

Hey, now wait a second. I started off with an Apple IIe. I was using Apple products long before...

Oh, fuck me.

Back in September, Apple paid a visit to our district to look over our iPad deployment (which, given the tools that are available and the requirements I was filling for granular group management, I'll admit to be rather pleased with).

I was told that we (I) did it wrong -- and that we had to let go of this archaic view of software as a licensed investment and view it as "paper and pens". This is, obviously, the new party line.

I only wish it were a few years ago.

The announcement came in November of '10, three months before they killed off the Xserves (one year ago -- last January).

I'm now surviving on two Xserves (one '08 and one early '10) and a small stack of Minis (due to my two G5 Xserves falling apart last year). We've got big iron on the other side of the house with everything virtualized -- and I'm running Minis...

Apple is not courting enterprise, it's the other way around. The prom queen isn't hurting for dates.

They run the full spectrum. K-12.

We have a large scale K-2 program where the iPads are used in center-based learning. We have carts used for shared classes and we also have 1:1 deployments. Students don't take the devices home (which buffers the percentages quite a bit, I realize).

I wasn't really tossing the original comment in as any kind of "fact"; just anecdotal observation. Most of our kids come from economically challenged families -- and most of our instructors are exceptionally dedicated to their vocation. Student success rates, fiscal responsibility, best tool for the job and proper direction of education in public schools kept from this conversation; we just happen to have above average treatment of technology in the classroom.

...actually, the adults I'm referring to are mostly administrators (the kind that haven't seen a classroom in twenty years and twisted funding to acquire an iPad to go along with their desktop, laptop and smartphone...).

I've found both classroom instructors and students to be careful with equipment (I'm the Apple sys-admin, I really don't deal with the Windows side of the house -- so my exposure to the Dells (netbooks, laptops and desktops) is non-existant in my day to day operations).

Primarily, when I hear about an adult breaking or "losing" an iPad; it's dropping it as they get out of the car, loss at the gym/hair salon/grocery store, etc... not an instructor.

Funny thing...

I've deployed around two thousand iPads in our district (and another 500 or so iPod Touches). 1700 (iPads and iTouches) or so to students, another 800 or so to admin/faculty.

Theft of device:
Students: 2.
Faculty/Staff: > 15.

Physical breakage (screen, headphone jack, etc...).
Students: 3.
Faculty Staff: > 20

Students have had devices for nearly three years. Adults, for about eighteen months.

Kids take care of the devices better than the adults (at least in our environment); weird, but there you go...

Actually, in my experience, the teachers appear to be just fine; it's the administrators that are the muddled bunch. Granted, that might have something to do with those above them (could well be); but it appears that the further you get from the classroom, the farther you get from the whole point of education -- and by this I mean both in the educational field as well as outside (post-graduation, get a job, have kids, expect someone else to raise them...).

It's one of the reasons that I refuse to live by the sysadmin adage of "a good sysadmin never need be in the field". I'd rather be in the field, it reminds me of why I have the job I do, who it is I (ultimately) work for and what the point of it all is.

Perhaps we'd be better without constantly chasing technology into the classroom for the sake of modernization (personally, I agree -- much as a smoker, I agree with banning the sale of tobacco products completely, it sounds hypocritical, considering my profession, but there you go); but until that happens someone from up above keeps making the decision to spend the money on this shiny crap. It's not the teachers. And its those teachers that are forced to re-evaluate their procedures around this new influx of technology every year. "Oh, what? Now I'm supposed to hand out netbooks and use a SMART board?" "Wait, what? Now you're taking away my Dells and giving me iPads the week before classes resume?"

Think about it from all sides. Until the powers that be (which includes the voting public) truly give a rat's ass about the education of the next generation; we're getting exactly what we've asked for.

sussudio?

Many a day the notion of parking an Airstream alongside some gorgeous lake in Alaska crosses my mind.

Of course, those daydreams also involve me waxing philosophic while spinning deep cuts of great jazz and wondering how I'm going to get the cute pilot to stop wasting her time with the resident neurotic town MD...

When Apple is ready, XCode will be released for other platforms; much like Openstep Solaris and Enterprise. Perhaps (as amRadioHead suggested), iOS development will take place in the cloud (think of the control that would give Apple in development...), or perhaps we'll see "development boxes" specific for development. Who knows.

The point is, saying that Macs are central is a bit of a stretch. I think Apple's ultimate goal is more iOS in the palm of your hand and an iOS/OS X hybrid in a Macbook Air form factor. Do desktops and full OS laptops really play a part in a company that killed off their enterprise servers and haven't even bothered to mention a server version of their next major OS?

I think not.

I'm thinking that Apple is gearing up to become a consumer appliance company -- which sucks, because I happen to really like OS X (and I also make a living as a Mac sysadmin for a public school district). I'm afraid that the Mac is becoming the Apple II of today's Apple.

You, sir, are an enemy of the people.

Please don't speak on this subject again.

I've asked the question myself so many times.

My guess (as worthless as it is) is this....

1. Your Mac Pro or iMac.
2. Your/significant other's macbook
3. Your system at work.
4 & 5: backups for when you forget (or are unable) to disable before you reinstall one of the above.

I'm far from defending it and I think it has a lot to do with an antiquated view of media ownership and hardware placement. I personally wish ICU handled app deployment, then I could ditch iTunes altogether. Apple appears to prefer that I view/listen to my media on their devices, not my workstation. I prefer to "share" media with my devices and keep it where it belongs, on my server (read: available everywhere I go).

For what it's worth, my workstation at home is also my DAW. I have a lot of money invested in pro studio quality monitors, D/A converters, power amps, etc... I don't want to sync audio to other devices and I don't want playlists (yeah, I'm weird that way. I like to walk over to ny virtual LP rack, pick an album and actually listen to it). Thankfully, I have Cog for my audio consumption. iTunes gets no use at all outside of my MBP for apps, podcasts, TTC lectures and a handful of weekly albums for the gym on the iPad/iPod Touch.

Sorry, long rant when weighing in on a single topic. Blame the sunday morning coffee...

You've never deployed a crate of iPods, iPads or a mass of iMacs or Powerbooks I take it.

Good for the purse, the same old pain for the back end crowd. Of course, Apple has no interest in Enterprise, so my point (n their eyes) is moot.

is the game I've been playing lately, although I have been suckered into the expansion: VPN: Peerstone of the Kingdom. The odd thing? Not only has it boosted my career, my employers actively support my playing it!

For anyone that thinks WOW and the ilk are nothing more than task missions and time sinks, I laugh at your assessment. You do not know grinding until you've played the entire 12 hour bug hunting mission in one sitting and then jumped straight into the chaotic and twist riddled OD: The Binding campaign (spoiler: It turns out that OD was merely a henchman to the evil, bastard AD!).