IBM @Mac - Why not BigFix?

[jwojda]

Having some time to sit and think about the sessions from last week, I'm curious why IBM didn't go with their Bigfix tool that they are pushing? We get asked regularly, when we are going to enroll our Macs into BF, and it's really interesting that IBM themselves didn't go with it, especially given their tight timeline to get this off the ground.

[mm2270]

Tells you something doesn't it?

[gachowski]

Just an FYI ... from the IBM season notes ... they are using BigFix.. for asset tracking.... I know it's just a detail and not the spirit of the thread... I am guessing a lot of Mac admins are going to be saying see I told you so to their managers and not getting the "facts" right will be a mess... : )

C

[wyip]

I'm not sure if you caught the follow up Q&A session during the lunch break, but this was sort of brought up then. Their response was along the lines of "we're not in the business of deploying IBM software, we're in the business of managing Macs and providing the best experience to our users, so we use the best tool for the job".

It sounds like they are actually in the same boat as my shop though, where we manage with Casper but also install BigFix on our Macs for inventory. The Mac@IBM team mentioned this is something they are 'working on internally', and would like to get to the point where they don't need to install BigFix on their Macs. Hopefully they release whatever solution they come up with...