Waaaaaaaay back in 2013, Gartner forecast that about half of the world’s enterprises would adopt bring your own device (BYOD) programs by 2017. With that deadline only weeks away, how are you feeling about your own company’s BYOD or CYOD policy? Have you seen your IT administration evolve to manage the growing mix of hardware in your system? Or are you an IT one-man-band with a pile of hardware and a little twitch when someone asks you if their new hire can have a Mac instead?

According to a BYOD and Mobile Security report (2016), the top inhibitor to BYOD adoption is security concerns. We would like to counter that with this thought: how much will it cost you if you don’t manage the Mac devices on your system or you don’t have a clear path for your employees to use their chosen devices at work? These are potential security weaknesses that can cripple a growing company should it fall victim to the risks.

Mac Security

As companies grow and they add to their creative and consulting staff, more and more Mac devices are entering business networks. It’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security thinking that Macs aren’t as much of a security risk as all the PCs on your network. However, security blogs are reporting that ransomware is a growing risk on Mac, and malware and Trojans are not something Mac is immune to. “Cybercriminals are on the lookout for easy targets, and nothing could be easier than capitalizing on under-or-unprotected Mac systems shrouded under a false sense of invincibility,” says Pedro Bustamante, vice president of products and new technologies at Malwarebytes.

You likely know Parallels from our software Parallels Desktop for Mac—though over the years, we have been steadily growing to serve businesses that are too large for a one person do-it-all-can-count-all-the-IT-assets-on-two-hands operation, as well as  global enterprises. For those of you finding yourself with Mac devices you need to manage on your network, but without the resources (and headcount!) for a new product  to enroll, monitor, update, and manage them, Parallels Mac Management is your new friend.

Managing Your Macs

Think how easy it would be if you could just add the Mac devices into your System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) software. You could easily network scan for Mac on your network, choose how you want to enroll a particular Mac (Is this a BYOD Mac? Dedicated-hardware-to-one-department Mac?), and have compliance enforcement, macOS Image deployment, and automated software delivery! We don’t want to toot our own horn, but Parallels Mac Management is the easiest way for you to check off that growing security concern on your network, with the minimum expenditure, time, and effort on your part as an IT administrator.

Parallels Mac Management 5.0 was released on November 10 and is all-inclusive at $30 annually per Mac. Let us help you with the growing number of unmanaged Mac devices on your network. Request your free trial of Parallels Mac Management today and see for yourself how it can make your life easier!