Equinux, JAMF Upgrade iPhone, iPad Provisioning Platforms

Tarmac, the iOS provisioning solution from Equinux, has added a security feature, while the next version of JAMF's Casper Suite will take advantage of the new management features in iOS4.Both Tarmac and the Casper Suite are intended to make it easier for companies to provision and administer iPhone and iPads (iOS devices) centrally. Equinux's Tarmac server software functions as middleware between an existing Active Directory, Open Directory, Open LDAP or MySQL directory service. The Tarmac server optimizes the existing information in the directory service for iOS and creates user profiles, specifying e-mail accounts, calendars, VPN access, restricted websites, and so on. These profiles can then be downloaded to users' iOS devices over the air.

The new version of Tarmac, 1.2, adds a new security module with its own Certificate Authority server. That lets the Tarmac server store user passwords and use the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) to distribute profiles.

Tarmac 1.2 is available in English and German. It costs $2,450 for the server and $78 per user per year for the mobile devices. Volume discounts are available.

JAMF's Casper Suite provides a centralized console for managing Mac OS X computers and, now iOS devices. The Mac end provides tools for inventorying networked systems and seeing what versions of what software they have, creating system images for provisioning software, managing patches and updates, and so on. The suite has also supported iPhone OS 3 devices.

Version 8 of the suite, due out this fall, will extend support to iOS 4 and take advantage of that system's new Mobile Device Management capabilities. As with the current version and iPhone OS 3, the new version will be able to create iPhone configuration profiles and download them to the phone, distribute WiFi, VPN, and e-mail settings, and inventory installed apps. In addition, though, with iOS 4 devices, Casper Suite 8 will be able to manage passcode policies, restrict app installation and camera usage, and remotely wipe or lock the device and clear its passcode.

Pricing for those who purchase licenses before release is $5 per device per year for education, $10 per device per year for commercial enterprises. Those prices will each double when the product is released.