In a time where social distancing has become the mantra of the world, IT employees around the world are finding it difficult to set up and manage devices. Thus, remote IT services are the need of the hour. Fleetsmith is a company that recognises this, and has been acquired by Apple for serving all its (remote) IT needs.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. In fact, Apple has not even made the announcement official as of yet. However, Fleetsmith made the announcement in a company blog post later, shrugging off any doubts.
“We’re thrilled to join Apple. Our shared values of putting the customer at the center of everything we do without sacrificing privacy and security, means we can truly meet our mission, delivering Fleetsmith to businesses and institutions of all sizes, around the world,” the announcement from the company read.
Fleetsmith was started with the aim of balancing the management and security needs of IT with the experience users love about Mac, iPad, and iPhone. The company had one mission: to make powerful, secure Apple fleet management available to everyone, and has stayed true to it. The company suggests that that devices they ship can be unwrapped, connected to a wifi, and enrolled directly in Fleetsmith. Over the years, it has managed to expand upon the services it provides, ike updating devices automatically with OS and security updates, while letting IT see a dashboard of the status of all devices under management.
This isn’t Fleetsmith’s first rodeo in the world of finance. The company has already raised around $40 million from various investors like Menlo Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Upfront Ventures and Harrison Metal will continue to sell the product through the company website, according to the blog post. In fact, it had a $30 million Series B funding round, just last year.
However, as we all know, Apple’s needs in the field of device management are fulfilled by Jamf. So what about the very old partnership these two share? Well, Apple, in all likelihood, will still rely on Jamf for all its device management needs. However, this new deal gives it the option to access remote IT services, a backup that can’t hurt.
