In a bid to position itself as the market leader in IT services management support for Apple Inc.’s Mac platform, managed services software vendor LogicNow Ltd., of Dundee, Scotland, today announced the acquisition of Mac-MSP LLC, a maker of cloud-based Mac management solutions headquartered in Lawrence, Kansas. Terms of the deal, which has already closed, were not revealed.
Mac-MSP’s software is based on products originally developed for in-house use by BestMacs, a Mac-focused solution provider and MSP founded in 1999 by Brian Best, who heads both firms. Integrating Mac-MSP’s software with LogicNow’s managed service product family will ultimately equip MSPs to monitor, manage, secure, and backup Mac end points as easily as they do Windows PCs, according to Stephen Garland, LogicNow’s senior vice president of engineering.
“Our core goal through [20]16 is to provide our same level of service that we do through our current platform to Mac users,” he says.
The first step in that quest will be the addition to LogicNow’s MAX RemoteManagement solution of new, more robust functionality for accessing and controlling Mac clients remotely. That capability is available now as part of a MAX RemoteManagement release candidate scheduled to ship on February 1st.
“We have had strong adoption of that in the trial period with no issues reported back, which is very encouraging,” says Garland, who adds that LogicNow is shooting to add Mac patch management and anti-virus functionality to the company’s MAXfocus RMM solution later this year.
LogicNow’s decision to make Mac support a priority stems from its September 2015 rollout of Active Discovery, a MAX RemoteManagement feature that dynamically and automatically detects workstations, servers, printers, routers, and other devices connected to a customer’s network. A hosted, multi-tenant solution, Active Directory gives LogicNow access to aggregated anonymous end point statistics from its more than 15,000 customers in over 100 countries.
“That gave us a strong data point that Mac adoption is far greater than we actually expected,” Garland says. Look for LogicNow to add support for further client platforms as well, such as Google Chromebooks, if Active Discovery reveals similarly climbing usage.
“We can quite quickly see trends and uptake of new trends,” Garland notes.
