100+ iPads, no backup method?

[bmollica]

Hey guys,

We have a little over a hundred iPads in our school district across 6 different schools. We purchase apps that take hours and hours to customize and there is no practical backup method. Right now we are using a single apple ID across all iPads and you can only sync to 5 computers. I was thinking of making one ID for each building and having a MacBook on each iPad cart in the buildings to be used by teachers to back up their data. How do you guys do backups on a large scale environment?

Thanks!
Brian

[CasperSally]

We are looking to do one sync station per building with it's own unique apple ID. That sync station holds a known good iPad backup on it for restore purposes if an iPad dies and needs to be rebuilt.

We also backup the local iTunes backup folder to a network share (haven't had to use that yet).

We don't have teachers backing up data, however. So far it hasn't been an issue and I'm honestly not sure teachers want the hassle of it. At end of year they'll get wiped like our laptops do.

Also, the price of a macbook per cart is too much for us to figure into our iPad deployment model, unless we wanted to buy that many fewer iPads.

[bmollica]

Thanks for the response! Our teachers are really pushing to have us back up their data because they work hard on modifying the apps.

[bosstone75]

So, I'm in a one to one environment where each iPad has a unique Apple ID, I can't even figure out how to do a back up restore in that situation. Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks,
Bill

[issupport]

Bill,

Did you ever find a way? I am also in a one to one environment and trying to decide how to handle this as well.

Terri

[issupport]

Bill,

Did you ever find a way? I am also in a one to one environment and trying to decide how to handle this as well.

Terri

[bosstone75]

Alas, I have not found a good way around this.