Integrating with different apps providers
Deploying native apps on devices managed by Bravas can be done in different ways depending on the operating system in use. The following sections will give you the global vision to understand what we can or cannot do.
iOS
For iOS, we currently only support Apple's App Store and only if you have access to Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager.
If you are an organization based in the European Union looking to deploy apps from a third party marketplace, you will not be able to do it with Bravas. This feature is currently not supported, and we do not plan to support it for now as we have not seen any legitimate business use case so far for third-party app marketplaces.
If you are in a country not supported by Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager, you will not be able to install any apps with Bravas.
macOS
On macOS, we currently support two methods for app installations. Of course, we support AppStore based app distribution if you have access to Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager. This is the recommended deployment option for us. This app source with Bravas is a reliable source of installation, unlike the experience you may have with our competitors.
In addition to the App Store, we also provide a direct download installation capability based on Alectrona's Patch. This solution is built with our Bravas agent installed on all Macs, and configured to talk only with your Bravas tenant.
Alectrona is our technology provider for our direct download capability. Our workflow is based on a private publication of their app catalog where we, as Bravas check their upstream server every minute to provide any available changes to all Bravas's Clusters around the world, On-Prem included.
This gives you the guarantee that Alectrona as a US provider, does not know who you are. However, this feature is a direct download feature. Each of your Mac will download the installation package from the original vendor website. Hence, if Alectrona does not see your IPs, the vendor of the installed apps will see it.
You will be required to use the direct download feature for all apps that are not published on the App Store or if you are in a country not supported by Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager.
At that time, we do not support the installation of custom packages nor running custom scripts. Please be assured that this is a highly important item on our road map.