IT service management vendor LOGICnow, of Dundee, Scotland, has added a new agent for Apple devices running the OS X operating system to its MAX Remote Management RMM solution.
The new offering, which is based on software that LOGICnow acquired in January along with Mac management solution maker Mac-MSP LLC, enables MAX Remote Management users to automate routine maintenance tasks, patch over 200 OS X-based solutions, perform passive anti-malware scanning, and tap into the capabilities of MAX Risk Intelligence, the vulnerability scanning and risk assessment solution that LOGICnow introduced in February.
According to Brian Best (pictured), the former Mac-MSP CEO now serving as LOGICnow’s Apple strategist, today’s announcement is a down payment on longer term plans to extend all of the MAX Remote Management functionality available for Windows client devices to the Mac platform.
“Obviously our end game is we want feature parity across the board,” he says. “As it stands right now, the very addition of these tools puts us head and shoulders above anybody else who’s doing any kind of support for Mac.”
At present, MAX Remote Management users must administer Mac clients via a separate, dedicated dashboard. Combining that console with the one MSPs use to manage Windows devices is one of several forthcoming Mac-related enhancements on LOGICnow’s product roadmap.
“We’re going to continue towards getting back to that single pane of glass that we love about Max RM,” Best says.
The past several months have been busy ones for Best. Though he’s no longer actively involved in decision-making, he continues to serve BestMacs, the Lawrence, Kan., solution provider and managed services practice he founded in 1999, as chairman. He’s also very much a full-time LOGICnow employee responsible both for Mac-related product management and for helping the company’s sales, support, and other units understand the intricacies of working with Apple hardware and customers.
“It’s kind of a culture shift,” he says.
And not just for LOGICnow, he adds. Though they know that managing Macs is both essential to keeping their customers secure and a potential source of incremental revenue, many Windows-oriented MSPs provide little if any support for Apple’s desktop and notebook platform at present.
“Part of the reason they’ve been ignoring it is they don’t have tools,” Best says. “We’ve just taken that barrier to entry away.”
Best, who declined to discuss timing, said that MAX Remote Management users can expect to hear more about Mac administration from LOGICnow this year.
“This is just the beginning,” he says.
