Jamf Buys Open-Source Vendor NoMAD to Expand Apple Management

Apple device-management vendor Jamf has acquired NoMAD, which specializes in Mac authentication and account management, as Jamf continues to deepen its product portfolio for channel partners and end users.

The acquisition will add NoMAD’s original open-source version and its multiple commercial product offshoots to Jamf’s offerings. The open-source version will continue to be called NoMAD, while the commercial versions are being combined and rebranded as Jamf Connect.

While Jamf already helps companies remotely manage their Apple device deployments from iPhones to MacBooks and more, NoMAD helps further simplify Microsoft Active Directory administration, authentication and account synchronization, giving users more options for their deployments.

The NoMAD team will join Jamf, which will continue to develop, enhance and support the NoMAD products. Jamf plans to add free chat support for the open-source version of NoMAD, which launched in 2016 and was offered previously by software company Orchard & Grove. Joel Rennich, the former CEO of Orchard & Grove, will serve as the director of the Jamf Connect product line.

The open-source version of NoMAD was originally released under an MIT open-source license and has about 1 million users on the GitLab repository. It gets about 40,000 downloads a month for the compiled version, Rennich told Channel Futures.

NoMAD got its name from the phrase, “No More Active Directory,” Rennich said. “Active Directory experiences for the Mac have not always been the most successful.”

Joel Rennich

Joel Rennich

Using NoMAD, Mac users can easily change their passwords in Active Directory and access Active Directory resources like file shares and other things without having to integrate or bind with Active Directory, which makes operations easier, he said.

For the channel, NoMAD also supports Okta single sign-on as well as Active Directory, making it a good fit for partners who already are reselling Okta, Rennich said. Users can use Okta as a replacement for Active Directory, which is supported by NoMAD.

For Jamf’s existing customers, the acquisition of NoMAD and the addition of its products will make workflows much smoother by adding deeper capabilities and options, said Rennich. “It lets users know their passwords so they will never get locked out of their machines, and it can add to the user experience.”

Kim Berndt, senior director of channel sales for Jamf in the Americas, told Channel Futures that the new Jamf Connect product line of NoMAD applications adds value for partners because it will help them sell more Apple products by overcoming the burden of making Active Directory work with Apple devices. Some business customers often tell channel partners they don’t want to move to Apple devices for their workers because of the need to integrate them to Active Directory, he said.

“This is going to help them bind to Active Directory under the covers,” said Berndt. “It will add features to make it a better fit for existing Jamf customers.”

Kim Berndt

Kim Berndt

For now, Jamf Connect is a separate product line from the existing Jamf Pro Enterprise and Jamf Now self-serve products, said Berndt. That could change in the future based on customer demand.

Dana Williams, president of Orchard & Grove, which created NoMAD, said the company reacted to a strong industry desire to eliminate the need to bind a Mac to Active Directory, while still maintaining account security.

“NoMAD makes this seamless by keeping the account credentials in sync between the identity provider and the Mac,” said Williams. “Our goal has always been to design and deliver products that make life easier for Mac admins and their users.”

Jamf said it has about 17,000 global customers which are managing more than 10 million Apple devices today.

Dean Hager, Jamf’s CEO, said NoMAD’s software is critical to the Mac account administration process.

“Combined with Jamf, we have a tremendous opportunity to better serve organizations working to succeed with Apple,” said Hager.