Apple and the art of IT management

They may be stressed about shadow IT, security, endpoint management, and the recent proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. They’re challenged not just by static budgets and rising costs, but by the proliferation of tools they now must use to do their job. And while IT admins are not exactly struggling for work, there is plenty for them to do.

Those are some of the findings in JumpCloud’s latest survey of IT admin decision-makers across the US, UK, and Australia. The report confirms that the workplace continues to become increasingly multi-platform, with 27% of enterprise employees now preferring to use Macs, up from low-single figures at the turn of the century.

JumpCloud, which this week acquired Stack Identity, is one of the larger unified device, identity, and access management platforms to provide support for the burgeoning Apple enterprise.

Windows down, macOS and Linux up

“Windows use has shown the most significant decrease over the last six months, compared to macOS and Linux, which both increased,” said JumpCloud.

When asked about the breakdown of their organization’s device type, admins reported Windows devices comprise 56% (down from 63% in Q3 2024), macOS 27% (up from 24% in Q3 2024), and Linux 20% (up from 18% in Q3 2024).

Mac adoption in the enterprise is certain to continue to climb. The tech support cost overhead of managing Windows systems means a migration might represent low-hanging fruit for many enterprise leaders working to squeeze more from their budgets. Initial cost aside (and the difference between Mac and equivalent Windows systems is smaller now than ever), the total cost of ownership has a significant impact on budgets.

Make no mistake. Budget-wrangling really is a thing: 39% spend up to half of their entire budget on licensing fees. While this reflects the grim reality that tech providers of all kinds are forcing subscriptions onto their customers, it represents a massive increase in such costs. In Q3, 2024 just 28% of admins endured similar budget erosion for licensing fees. 

What do you get for your money?

Windows and other Microsoft devices were seen as the most difficult things to manage by 23% of respondents. To be fair, Apple devices were seen as difficult to manage by 19% of IT admins, with Linux winning unspoken praise — just 14% of admins saw it as the most difficult.

All the same, what that difference in Windows-vs-Mac management difficulty means is that the Windows experience is more abrasive, which — in conjunction with the upcoming Windows licensing replacement cycle — means IT will be tempted to look at alternatives.

Perhaps that’s why 43% of admins expect macOS device use to increase in the coming year, though 54% also anticipate increased use of Windows. The default rate — enterprises dropping support for either platform — is fairly equal, though Apple has the edge. 

On-prem, off-prem, and multicloud

Admins are also frustrated at the complexity of managing cloud and multi-cloud setups. That’s turning into a big opportunity for managed service providers (MSPs) who increasingly offer to ease the pain of managing multi-cloud setups. MSPs aren’t just about cloud services management, of course. But it does appear to be their time to shine, with 93% of organizations already using or considering an MSP. Their role also seems to be changing, as they’re increasingly seen as trusted advisors.

Can AI supplement IT roles? Admins see the technology as both a risk and an opportunity. But organizations appear to be accelerating AI deployments, with 15% of admins warning the tech is being put in place too fast and 67% believing these deployments are outpacing organizational ability to protect against threats.

“Keeping pace with all the improvements and changes keeps me up at night,” one anonymous survey respondent told JumpCloud. “AI has bought a new way of doing business and requires major adjustments.” 

Back to the (AI) future

It’s not just deployment that has admins spooked. Thirty-seven percent of them fear AI will take their jobs — and 56% of corporate vice presidents now worry AI will replace them, up from 29% a year ago. All the same, fear of redundancy is endemic across every role.

How is AI being managed? Most enterprises are taking steps to accommodate its use, with just 21% having taken no steps or put AI restrictions in position. Almost half (49%) of companies have developed policies to guide employee use of AI, with 47% encouraging use of tools such as ChatGPT. 

With data being the new gold, it’s no surprise that 28% of IT admins said their companies now have controls in place to prevent employee use of AI. “To harness [AI’s] power responsibly, organizations must lead with clear governance and innovation frameworks that balance opportunity with risk,” JumpCloud said.

All the same, unauthorized use of AI continues, and just like any other form of Shadow IT this proliferation is a big problem for IT.

The usual suspects

The number of admins concerned about the use of apps and devices that aren’t managed has increased again, with 88% of IT admins now worried about this. They estimate that most employees use between one and five unauthorized applications.

There are lots of reasons for this, one of them being the speed at which businesses are moving, which means the current needs aren’t being met, driving employees to seek solutions that fit. And while you’d expect IT to spend time handling this, lack of time and lack of visibility into all the apps employees use means that just as fiscal budgets demand careful juggling, so too does precious IT time.

What else is eating that time? Security. It currently consumes the lion’s share of IT budgets. A plurality of organizations (47%) spend between 10% and 25% of their yearly IT budget on cybersecurity; another 24% spend 26% to 50%; 5% spend more than half their budget on security; and 24% less than 9% on security. In other words, security remains a tidy little earner for vendors, and a significant revenue expenditure line item for IT. 

You’d think with all that money spent, security would already be tightly constrained, but that’s not the case. 

Almost half (46%) of organizations report that they have fallen victim to a cyberattack. AI-augmented attacks are also proliferating — this is now the third-biggest security concern after phishing and shadow IT. Man-in-the-middle attacks, MFA hacks and security breaches in partner organizations are also on the rise.

In other words, security is an endless feast of fear for some, and of revenue for others. Of course, things might be better if there were platform choices that could mitigate this attack surface.

You can explore some of the highlights from a previous JumpCloud survey here.

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