Aug 2025 – MacAdmins Meeting

11 Aug Aug 2025 – MacAdmins Meeting

August 20th, 2025 – University of Utah, MacAdmins Meeting

The University of Utah MacAdmins Meeting is held virtually monthly on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 11 AM Mountain Time. Presentations cover Apple technology and integration in a heterogeneous university enterprise environment. This month’s meeting will be held on Wed, August 20th, 2025, at 11 AM MT, and we will provide live broadcasts and archives that will be made available 2-3 days after the meeting.

Platform SSO – Jacob Dekkenga, Apple

Join us for a focused, three-part exploration of Platform Single Sign-On (SSO) and how it’s evolving to make authentication on macOS more seamless and secure.

We’ll begin with “What is Platform SSO?”, providing a clear overview of how Apple’s framework integrates Identity Provider (IdP) credentials directly into the macOS login process. You’ll learn how Platform SSO links a user’s local account with their enterprise identity to deliver a consistent sign-on experience across both native and web apps, reducing friction, improving security, and supporting zero-trust strategies.

Next, we’ll look at “What’s available with today’s macOS Sequoia 15?” This segment covers the capabilities you can deploy right now: enabling IdP login at the macOS login window, maintaining password sync between macOS and the IdP, and providing SSO access without repeated prompts. We’ll share real-world tips for configuration, deployment, and troubleshooting in current environments.

Finally, we’ll dive into “What’s coming and what’s changing with macOS 26?”, highlighting the new features announced at WWDC 2025. This includes deeper Setup Assistant integration, enhancements to Automated Device Enrollment, new login methods like digital credentials in Apple Wallet, and improved tools for IT teams to manage and test SSO deployments.

We expect this to be an interactive presentation with plenty of Q&A—so bring your deployment questions, IdP integration challenges, and future-planning scenarios.

About Jacob Dekkenga

Jacob Dekkenga is a Mac Solutions Architect on the Mac Success Team within Apple Education. Apple’s Architects and Specialists provide guidance and deep technical expertise around Apple’s best practices for Mac deployment, management, identity, security, and compliance. Before that, he was an Apple Higher Education Systems Engineer in the upper Midwest. Before joining Apple, Jacob held the position of Systems Administrator at Iowa State University. His responsibilities included roles in Central IT and the School of Journalism.

App-Auto-Patch 3.x – Andrew Spokes, Zillow 

Discover how App-Auto-Patch 3.x revolutionizes third-party application patch management across Mac environments through intelligent automation and user-friendly interfaces. This presentation demonstrates how MacAdmins can eliminate manual update workflows while maintaining security compliance and user satisfaction. App-Auto-Patch 3.x combines local application discovery with Installomator integration and leverages swiftDialog for intuitive, branded update prompts. Version 3.0 introduces features including automated background agent capabilities, silent scanning modes, and enhanced administrative controls that can be deployed across Mac fleets using Jamf Pro, FileWave, or other MDM solutions

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Integration with existing workflows and troubleshooting common deployment challenges. The presentation emphasizes key organizational benefits: reduced administrative overhead through automation, improved security posture via prompt updates, enhanced user satisfaction through user-driven patching, and centralized control through configuration profiles.

About Andrew Spokes

Andrew Spokes is a Client Engineer on the Endpoint Management team at Zillow, where he manages over 5,000 Macs and develops automation to streamline patch management, security, and deployment workflows. Andrew is passionate about building efficient, user-friendly solutions for enterprise Mac environments and sharing tools and workflows with the broader Mac Admins community. Andrew lives in Phoenix, AZ with his partner and 50 yr old three-toed box turtle.

• Video – To view the archived presentation video, click here.
• Slides – To view the archived presentation slides, click here.

macOS 26: What You Need To Know – Robert Hammen, SAP 

Need the lowdown on what’s up with the latest version of macOS? This presentation will be your guide to the new features and changes coming in macOS 26, and how they’ll affect you and your users, and what you can do to prepare!

It will cover major platform changes, including the final Intel support sunset as Apple completes its Apple Silicon journey, Rosetta 2 removal timelines for native application migration, and the evolution of Apple’s unified year-based numbering system. He will dive deep into enterprise and MDM enhancements, particularly the expansion of Declarative Device Management (DDM) as more traditional MDM features move to DDM-only implementation, the fourth iteration of Platform SSO, advanced device migration tools for streamlined MDM-to-MDM transitions, and critical updates to Bootstrap Token and Secure Token handling that affect FileVault and authentication workflows.

Security and management improvements feature prominently, including background task management evolution with new controls and suppression methods, privacy-preserving content filtering that processes decisions on-device, enhanced Safari management capabilities with more granular administrative controls, and long-awaited certificate auto-selection features for enterprise authentication. Apple School Manager updates include API enhancements providing extended programmatic access to organizational data, refined Managed Apple Account controls and migration tools, and expanded device information covering hardware and connectivity data.

The presentation emphasizes testing and deployment strategy, covering beta testing best practices through the Apple Seed for IT program, mastering feedback filing techniques to get Apple’s attention with deployment blockers, hardware compatibility planning for M-series requirements, and migration timeline recommendations to maximize the 90-day deferral period. He will provide actionable guidance for MacAdmins managing enterprise Mac deployments, IT professionals planning upgrade strategies, system administrators working with MDM solutions, security teams implementing Mac management policies, and anyone responsible for Apple device lifecycle management.

About Robert Hammen

As a former IT manager, consultant, Apple Certified System Administrator, and Apple Certified Trainer, I’ve been managing Macs since before the days of OS X. After 5 years managing the tens of thousands of Apple devices at SpaceX, sending 58 iPads to orbit with astronauts and cosmonauts, I’m now part of the Mac Center of Excellence team at SAP.

• Video – To view the archived presentation video, click here.
• Slides – To view the archived presentation slides, click here.

Open Discussion

Questions, comments, problems, and fixes.

Directions

This meeting will not be held in person but virtually via Zoom video communications architecture.