Apple's continuing enterprise momentum means it's grabbing a growing slice of the business ecosystem, and the expansion is driving growth across the Apple device management ecosystem.

Addigy Innovate 2022

Reflecting this, Addigy recently announced plans to hold its annual Innovate 2022 conference later this month. I spoke with Jason Dettbarn, founder and CEO, who says the event will include keynotes and product presentations, including one hosted by The Ethical Hackerauthor Ralph Echemendia.

"With Apple's renewed focus on the MacBook Pro line and business users, we've seen a significant uptick in interest in our products over the past year," Dettbarn said.

Enterprises across the board have ramped-up their Apple deployments since coronavirus struck, providing employees with the tools they need to stay productive while working remotely. "By April 2020, 70% of the workplace reported that they worked from home," said Adam Pettit, founder and CEO of Kandji. 

The year of the Mac

For example, use of Mac laptops in the enterprise increased 63%, with most IT decision-makers noting that employees want these machines. IDC claims macOS device use across US enterprises reached 23%, while iPhones accounted for 49% of business smartphones.

"It's been incredible to see the enthusiasm and momentum for the Mac lineup powered by the M1 family of chips among innovative businesses, prestigious learning institutions, and beyond," said Susan Prescott, Apple's vice president of Enterprise and Education Marketing recently.

Dettbarn sees the same expansion.

"There is no doubt enterprises are adopting Apple at a rapid pace, but the growth is fundamentally capped by their struggle to integrate Apple with their current identity and security infrastructure," he said. "The combination of work-from-home, focus on employee retention, and staggeringly great new Apple Mac hardware are the primary drivers of this momentum. And yet this momentum is still constrained by the lack of enterprise infrastructure integration."

Addigy, of course, offers solutions that help enterprises integrate Apple's ecosystems into their technology infrastructure.

Security may be a friction point to growth

I asked Dettbarn if he felt Apple had hit its limits in terms of enterprise adoption. He believes Apple's increasingly great machines and employee choice will continue to drive growth, but argues that tough security and integration will act as brakes on accelerated deployment.

As so many in the industry agree, Dettbarn notes the impact of COVID-19 on enterprise IT:

"COVID forced perimeter-based security to go the way of the dodo bird. Enterprises had to start truly hardening the endpoint and, most importantly, identity-based management. The growing demand for Apple in enterprises also creates a higher security threat vector of exploiting an organization, which can be seen by the massive number of Apple vulnerabilities in the last 12 months."

[ Also read: 8+ useful iPhone tips for better productivity ]

He argues that the increasing number of threats means organizations must take steps to secure their Mac fleet.

Addigy hopes to offer enterprises some of what they need at its events. Promised highlights include a new UI and new policy management system; integration with third-party options such as Okta Identity Engine for identity certificate management; and integration with Microsoft's new Compliance Engine.

Preparation is the best line of defense

I also learned that Echemendia's presentation will consist of a security preparedness workshop based on real world experience in which the author will explain how a company can prepare itself for an attack and what to do if attacked. Naturally, this extends to fostering the correct internal environment for disclosure of security-related incidents, employee education and a clear understanding of what roles each person should play in the event of an attack.

You can register to attend the free event here.

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