There are a lot of providers with MDM solutions, such as Symantec, IBM, Sophos, JAMF Software, and others. We're going to use Profile Manager in this chapter, not because it's the best of them, but because it's an Apple product. The features of each MDM solution can be quickly and easily compared at http://www.enterpriseios.com/wiki/Comparison_MDM_Providers.

In this chapter, we will look at two solutions. The first is Apple's Profile Manager. This is a service included as part of the Server application, which runs on Mac OS X and is built by Apple. The Server app can be purchased from the Mac App Store for around 20 dollars (USD). However, the Profile Manager is not a complete solution for many; it lacks some scalability and ease of use that other vendors have built into their products. The second is a newcomer called Bushel. The Profile Manager requires an OS X Server, whereas Bushel is a SaaS solution.