Digital workspace management for the modern organization

Photo by cottonbro studio.

The importance of digital workspace management

Over recent years, work has transformed from a static in-office model to a more hybrid and mobile-centric model. The most sought-after talent now expects a digital employee experience that offers secure access from the office, home, or local coffee shop. Digital workspace management (DWM) platforms such as Jamf equip organizations to serve these employees.

Changing employee expectations, tighter budgets and looming security threats mean that businesses wishing to survive must embrace change.

And in this case, that change is welcome: continued advances in the capabilities and speed of computers (especially Apple) mean that many jobs no longer genuinely require workers to come into the office every day. Allowing for remote or hybrid work saves organizations money for office space, enhances the employee experience, and can increase employee productivity. Additionally, new tools foster better communication and collaboration between remote employees.

Insights from Omdia 2024 Report

“Omdia Universe - Digital Workspace Management/UEM Platforms 2024” sheds more light on the increasing importance of turning toward a digital workspace mindset rather than focusing on an exclusively in-office workspace. Flexibility and modern management enable organizations to meet today’s work priorities and prepare for the future.

“The modern workspace and employee experiences are digital-first,” reports Adam Holtby, Principal Analyst with Omdia, “and organizations must embrace new ways and technologies to manage them. By utilizing digital workspace management platforms, businesses can effectively address these challenges and support their employees in this new era of work.”

“Omdia recommends that organizations not fall into the trap of overly focusing on work locations,” says Holtby. “Instead, a focus on developing resilient and digitally enabled organizations is key.”

Meeting the challenges of modern device management

“Mobility and digital workplace capabilities have become business-critical,” Holtby explains. To survive and thrive, organizations must meet these challenges head-on.

Global device compliance

One advantage to an Apple-first workplace and an Apple-first vendor is one of Apple’s unique capabilities: declarative device management. With declarative device management, providers such as Jamf empower individual devices to take action when they fall out of compliance autonomously. That’s right: a device can protect itself by shutting down access the moment it falls out of determined parameters, reporting their noncompliance to the server.

With Jamf, organizations have an unprecedented view into all of their devices, no matter where they are or what state they are in. With proactive reporting-in, devices remain in contact with the server without waiting for a ping asking their status.

This has obvious applications for security. A device that sandboxes and shuts down malware before waiting to be pinged is a safer device, and it is protecting the network.

Preventing and fighting cyber attacks

As Holtby points out, cyber attacks are getting more and more sophisticated since Apple use has begun to rise in enterprise companies. But organizations can remain more secure with the proper tools in place, such as behavioral analysis security measures, sandboxing and declarative device management: all offered by Jamf.

Beyond UEM

“The core mobile endpoint management features that vendors in this category deliver,” says Holtby, “are developing further in offering a range of new capabilities, including advanced mobile security, self-remediation, employee experience, and autonomous capabilities.”

Supporting a modern workforce means that strategies need to account for much more than only endpoint management capabilities. Digital workspace management platforms, the report says, “will be an important enabler of zero-trust security.”

Jamf’s approach to zero-trust security, Trusted Access, includes not only important security tools like endpoint protection and threat detection and response, but also encrypted connections and device management practices that support security: like first-day support and specialized app management.

Apple UEM and digital workspace management

“Apple management,” says Holtby, “is emerging as an important competitive battleground.”

He continues: “Apple devices have become a staple of the business end-user compute experience, and Omdia anticipates this trend will accelerate further due to Apple’s increased focus on and investment in business use cases over recent years.”

Why Apple?

While Jamf offers some support for other platforms such as Windows, Android and Google, there is a reason we are focused so intently on Apple.

Apple simply has capabilities that no one else can match: better security, better performance, a more stable OS— and the best user experience around.

Because Jamf is Apple-first and Apple from the ground up, our solutions are built around these unique qualities in ways that device-agnostic UEMs can’t. We work with Apple’s excellent existing privacy protections, security, and user experience capabilities to make the most of your Apple fleet. Because we are built first for Apple, you can offer employees the intuitive experience they love and expect from Apple devices rather than using a UEM that is not able to take advantage of Apple’s unique offerings.

Omdia on Jamf

Holtby pointed out some capabilities of the Jamf platform that caused Omdia to name us as a leader:

• Unified endpoint management and security: Jamf delivers a comprehensive set of capabilities to help businesses manage and secure the growing number of Apple devices being used in the workplace.
• Digital experience and deployment: Jamf maintains and continues to enhance one of the longest-operated and reputable mobile threat defense solutions . . . globally.
• Jamf delivers management features that extend into physical spaces: (e.g., digital badge provisioning and management via mobile wallets) and the enablement of cellular connectivity of users via eSIM.
• Strategy and innovation: Jamf is embracing Apple's Declarative Device Management (DDM) capabilities and building Apple-first capabilities that will make devices more autonomous and performant, while also ensuring the backend operates efficiently while maintaining an up-to-date assessment of the device state.
• Market momentum and impact: Apple is experiencing rapid growth in the workplace, commanding a significant portion of the mobile device footprint in use at work (via iOS and iPadOS), along with a growing share of primary computer devices (via macOS) in addition to emerging deployments of tvOS and watchOS in non-traditional deployments (e.g., digital signage, manufacturing).

The Omdia report also hailed Jamf for:

• Market-leading Apple device management and security
• Encouraging the use of GenAI to improve security and endpoint management
• Development of industry-specific solutions

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!

Jamf simplifies an increasingly complex business landscape.

One way to simplify this complexity is to choose a one-vendor security and management solution for your Apple fleet. This saves time wasted on attempting to make different solutions integrate with each other, and vendor consolidation saves money otherwise spent on multiple add-on solutions. “A greater focus on cost and tool consolidation is necessary,” Holtby explains in the study, “due to the economic downturn.”

If you want your organization to grow into the hybrid and flexible future, choose Apple. And if you choose Apple, Jamf is your best bet.

When it comes to digital workspace management for Apple, you can count on Jamf to have all of these moving parts well in hand. It just makes sense to consolidate your modern management approach with an acknowledged leader and Apple ecosystem expert.