There is a critical piece to the Apple ecosystem when it comes to the business and education sectors. In order to provide the most seamless experience possible, small and medium sized business as well as education institutions have been leaning heavily on software provider Jamf, based out of Minneapolis, MN. Listening to some of Jamf’s customers explain the utility of its products, it’s clear the company has cultivated raving fans. Clients claim the deployment and ongoing use of Apple throughout their organization would be nearly impossible without Jamf.
Jamf is perhaps the world’s leading provider of Apple software management products. It is an organization committed to enabling IT teams to deliver the full power and experience behind the Apple brand. Jamf has offices around the world including Minneapolis, Eau Claire, Cupertino, New York, Amsterdam, Katowice, Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo
It is best known for its products - Jamf Pro, Jamf Now and ZuluDesk products, and the 75,000 members that comprise Jamf Nation. An impressive 30,000 organizations rely on Jamf including 9 of the top 10 technology companies, 20 of the Top 25 Fortune 500 companies, and 14,000 schools across the globe, among many other major organizations.
The company received a big capital boost twice. The first occurred in 2013, when Summit Partners injected $30 million in the business and the second when Vista Equity Partners acquired it in 2017. Vista has been true to form with its buy and build strategy. In the past year, Jamf has acquired three business – Orchard & Grove, ZuluDesk and Digita Security.
Digita is just two-years old, however it was founded by a team of industry experts in the area of security. One of the founders is Patrick Wardle, who is as skilled as they come. His background includes a decade as a Mac security researcher and working at the NSA, where he cultivated security research skills.
Patrick comments that most security vendors haven’t focused on the Mac because of its relatively low market share, “Mac market share is somewhat limited, maybe around 10%. So the average company is not going to spend a lot of time and resources developing Mac-specific capabilities,” he said. “From the hacker’s point of view, this is great news, because their backdoor implants are generally not going to be detected by traditional tools. What I’ve been working on the last few years, and then most recently at Digita Security, is creating a system that is Mac-specific, that leverages Mac-specific and Apple-specific frameworks and technologies,” he continued.
According to Jamf CEO Dean Hagar, they will continue to market Digita’s solutions as a standalone offering. And they will further evaluate the right time to begin integrating the solution into the overall Jamf platform.
Albeit a small acquisition as compared to the overall breadth of the Jamf organization, it is a classic strategic move likely emboldened by Vista. Digita provides a new technology, which can be cross-sold into those 30,000 organizations already using Jamf further enhancing overall customer success and enduring use of everything Apple.
