MEM Summit to cover unified Apple management
MEM Summit 2026 previewed a session on Unified Apple Device Management that pairs Microsoft Intune with Apple’s Declarative Device Management to cover scalable iOS/iPadOS hardening and low‑touch administration in education. The session flags DDM as a key lever for automating policy enforcement across large Apple fleets. (x.com)
MEM Summit 2026 EMEA edition is set for April 22–24, 2026 at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris. (communitydays.org) Apple announced at WWDC in June 2025 that traditional MDM software‑update controls will be deprecated with the upcoming OS 26 releases, shifting software‑update enforcement to Declarative Device Management. (techcommunity.microsoft.com) Microsoft Intune documents explicit DDM-based controls in the admin center that let admins target a specific iOS/iPadOS version, set enforcement deadlines, and reduce user disruption when applying updates. (learn.microsoft.com) Apple’s Education guidance describes DDM as a device‑driven “declaration” model that improves update reliability, reporting, and autonomous configuration enforcement for school fleets. (education.apple.com) Microsoft’s Intune “what’s new” notes assignment filters for DDM configurations are rolling out to customers and should be available by late March 2026, enabling policy targeting by campus or cohort. (learn.microsoft.com) Guidance from Intune‑focused community docs warns that once Intune enables declarative management on a device the declarative state cannot be turned off without unenrolling and removing declarations. (intunemacadmins.com) Industry write‑ups highlight that DDM offloads enforcement to endpoints, reducing server‑to‑device chatter and lowering centralized maintenance overhead for large Apple fleets—an operational benefit cited for education deployments. (42gears.com)
