A fleet of brand new Ipads just rolled in. But while you’re admiring that pallet of shiny, cellophane-clad tablet goodness, the realization hits you: “I have to get these in the hands of our students in just a few hours”.  

Oh, did we forget to mention that part? Yeah, you’re also in charge of the rollout.

Fortunately for you, you chose Securly.  Let’s go ahead tell the readers why that was the best decision ever of your storied tech career. 

Well for starters, those iPads are already enrolled and managed by Securly MDM. 

Remember? A few weeks ago when you ordered those iPads, you simply added them to our MDM through the Device Enrollment Platform (or DEP). So before they even arrived on-site, you’d already scoped each iPad to its specific student, assigned apps, email, and security policies along the way. Boy, that was easy. 

Then, you followed up that genius move by deploying Securly Filter to those iPads as well. Why? Perhaps, because it’s the best filter on the market, hands down. The reason why Securly Filter is the best filter for iPads can be summed up in one word: Smartpac.

Securly patented a brand new way to leverage the PAC file a little over 2 years ago. Since then, it just keeps getting better and better. It was such a smart new method for PAC files that when we were coming up with what to name it, the answer was obvious (and the meeting was short). 

What makes SmartPAC so smart, you ask? Well, if you have been in the industry for a while, you’ve seen a PAC file for two. PAC files are generally static IF / THEN statements that say:

IF Student A goes to Site 1 THEN Let it through!

IF Student A goes to Site 2 THEN Let’s filter!

If you currently use a PAC file, chances are you’ve built many of these statements in the past and have maybe even torn your hair out making sure all of your devices get the latest version.  Or heaven forbid you accidentally added a comma in the wrong place, you could bring down an entire network (not that I’ve done that before myself… insert awkward pause).

SmartPAC requires NO updates. 100% of the allow and deny rules are managed directly from your User Interface. So you deploy it once and forget it. They go into effect immediately no matter where that user is located.

I asked Paul Katcher, Product Manager of Filter, what he loves most about SmartPAC.

“Because SmartPAC is built for the cloud it avoids the reliability issues that other filtering solutions face. The SmartPAC capabilities work without requiring any connection back to your school network. What this means is that your school’s 1:1 devices will always adhere to your filtering policy, plus you get the full decrypted reporting you expect on your network.”

Over time, we began to add new features to this platform, with the most popular being:

• Zero-Touch Authentication – Leveraging your MDM in 1:1 to assign a user to a device where they never have to authenticate again.
• Verbose Reporting – Want extreme levels of reporting? This is it.

Where SmartPAC is superior over the competition:

• NO AGENTS – SmartPAC is extremely lightweight at around 8 kb in size. It never needs to be updated or patched when iOS updates roll out. Deploy it once and you’re done.
• 100% Cloud – No more proxying traffic BACK to the school or reliance on an appliance on-premise. SmartPAC is completely managed in the cloud and is the perfect off-site solution for iPads.
• Authentication is a breeze – We support modern Identity Providers such as Google and Azure, as well as SSO with Active Directory. SmartPAC also allows for deep integration with your MDM or Domain Controller which can allow for a zero-touch authentication experience. 
• Browser and Device Agnostic – Running an older version of iOS? MacOS, or Windows? That’s okay with SmartPAC. Have Safari and Chrome on your iPad as well? No sweat.

So sit back and relax, my fellow admin. You were wise enough to install Securly on that pallet of devices. All that’s left now is for those students to pick up those iPads.

Want to learn more? Check out these on-demand webinars:

How to best use Securly for Remote Learning

SmartPAC by Securly