I’ve written numerous articles concerning the progress of software program as a service purposes. There are clear advantages to SaaS enterprise fashions over one-time-use purchases. Many purposes have morphed into home windows right into a cloud service. One “hack” that many IT directors ought to contemplate to streamline their customers’ expertise is “web site particular” purposes designed to launch a single web site.
About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers managed an enterprise IT community from 2009 to 2021. By means of his expertise deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a cell gadget administration system, enterprise grade Wi-Fi, 100s of Macs, and 100s of iPads, Bradley will spotlight methods by which Apple IT managers deploy Apple gadgets, construct networks to help them, practice customers, tales from the trenches of IT administration, and methods Apple might enhance its merchandise for IT departments.
Again after I was operating IT at a college within the later 2000s, I made the considerably controversial choice to drag the plug on our growing old Alternate server and change to Google Apps for Schooling. Sure, it will be extra controversial to handle your personal Alternate setting over a hosted resolution in immediately’s IT setting, however this was a very long time in the past.
One of many “pitches” I made to senior leaders is the flexibility to make use of any software you wish to entry your e-mail. If you happen to bear in mind, on the time, it wasn’t as straightforward to entry Alternate e-mail on OS X and iPhone OS. As well as, Apple solely supported Alternate 2007 when it will definitely did add help throughout its merchandise.
Despite the fact that I pitched as a result of everybody might use their most popular app for e-mail, I secretly needed customers to make use of Google’s net interface. I had this imaginative and prescient of transferring individuals away from Microsoft Workplace to Google Docs and Spreadsheets, so Gmail was my “Malicious program.” I feared that if customers migrated to a different desktop software for e-mail, they’d be much less possible to make use of Google’s net collaboration suite.
Web site Particular Browser
To fight the “lack” of a desktop app, I used Fluid to construct a Google E-mail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs “app” that I deployed as a part of our OS X picture. Because of this, each consumer had these “apps” on their OS X dock after they launched the pc. Moreover, I firmly consider it helped drive the adoption of Gmail and Google’s different productions.
We now know the historical past of what occurred. SaaS-based net apps dominated the subsequent decade, and Google Workspace turned an equal peer to Microsoft within the office for communication and collaboration.
At the moment, many IT directors will deploy net clips to company-owned IT gadgets to assist streamline entry. I nonetheless assume there’s room for site-specific browser apps on macOS as nicely. If your organization makes use of an answer with no strong desktop app, you’ll be able to assist customers shortly entry it by constructing a site-specific browser app and packaging it up. Apps like Fluid, Unite, and Chromeless can all accomplish this activity. You’ll wish to experiment along with your particular purposes and deployment strategies, however I firmly consider it’s nonetheless a useful use case in macOS immediately. I’d positively use a site-specific browser app over a Catalyst software.
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