Reinforcing in-house IT: an Apple fleet under management, mailboxes to the cloud

The in-house IT of a growing agency was fully stretched by day-to-day work. The staff work exclusively on Apple devices, while file services still sit on Windows servers. Several projects were coming up at the same time that needed extra capacity and experience: central device management for the Mac fleet, migrating the mailboxes to the cloud, and bringing structure to file storage and processes.

On fixed on-site days I handled tickets and onboardings in person so the in-house team had room for its projects. The Macs first came under Microsoft Intune: policies, encryption and an automated rollout, so new devices set themselves up the first time they are switched on. Later I moved Mac management to Iru, a system specialised in Apple that sits closer to what macOS can do: commands and scripts sent from Intune sometimes took minutes or hours to reach the Macs, while Iru responds much faster. The mailboxes moved to Exchange Online, planned in workshops with the external migration provider and agreed with the in-house team. Alongside that came a SharePoint solution for managing freelancers, tidied-up Teams structures with clear rules, and an asset management system for devices, licences and contracts.

The Mac fleet is centrally managed, new devices set themselves up, and the agency knows at any time which device is with whom and which licence belongs to it. Mailboxes, file storage and collaboration follow rules that can be followed. The in-house IT delivered its projects and kept the knowledge in the building. The model of fixed days proved itself over two years and can be picked up again whenever it is needed.