Kandji vs Rippling IT for Cloud and DevOps Consultancies

A standard MDM policy written for a sales or marketing team assumes the user shouldn't need admin rights at all. Apply that to a cloud engineer and you'll spend the next month fielding requests to approve every command-line tool, package, and local service they need for work that's genuinely part of their job. The engineers most consultancies hire are also the ones most likely to route around an overly rigid policy entirely, which defeats the purpose of having one. The right target is a baseline that's non-negotiable, encryption, screen lock, patch currency, layered under admin freedom that's genuinely wide.

Kandji's model separates the baseline security posture from day-to-day admin freedom cleanly: FileVault, firewall, and patch enforcement apply automatically, while the engineer keeps enough local control to install and manage their own tooling without filing a ticket every time. Its agent footprint is also light enough that it doesn't compete for CPU and memory with local virtual machines, containers, and build processes the way a heavier agent can. For a consultancy where every engineer runs a different stack, that combination tends to generate the fewest support tickets over time.

Cloud and DevOps consultancies lean hard on 1099 contractors for short engagements, and Rippling's device management is built around exactly that employment pattern, since it shares a system of record with contractor onboarding and offboarding. When a contractor's engagement ends, the same record that stops their payment can also trigger a device wipe, which matters for a firm with a lot of short-term, project-based staffing. Its multi-OS support also covers the rare engineer who runs Linux or Windows machines instead of a Mac, something Kandji can't touch at all.

Both platforms can get you to an encrypted, patched, enrolled fleet. The difference shows up when your staffing changes fast: a Kandji-only setup needs its offboarding trigger wired to whatever system tracks contractor status, while Rippling's is native if you're already running contractor payments through it. If you're not, that native tie doesn't help you, and Kandji's faster day-to-day setup for a Mac-heavy team becomes the more relevant factor.

The common failure isn't skipping device management, it's applying a rigid policy that pushes engineers to work around it, disabling the agent, using a personal machine instead, or storing credentials somewhere the company can't see at all. A policy engineers actually respect is one that protects the laptop without pretending to control everything they do on it. Consultancies that get this balance right spend less time chasing shadow IT and more time on the work they're actually billing for.

Set the baseline before a new engineer touches a single client credential: confirm encryption is on, confirm the update policy is active, and confirm you know which cloud accounts and infrastructure secrets that laptop will hold before day one starts. Consultancies that skip this step under deadline pressure tend to fix it retroactively after an engineer has already been working unmanaged for a week or two, which is a harder cleanup than the ten minutes it would have taken up front. Treat the baseline check as part of the kickoff checklist, not a follow-up task.

Confirm these points before an engineer starts a first engagement:

• Confirm encryption is on and the update policy is active before the engineer touches a single client credential.
• List which cloud accounts and infrastructure secrets the laptop will hold before day one starts.
• Apply baseline controls such as FileVault, firewall, and patch enforcement automatically, while leaving enough local control for engineers to install their own tooling.
• Wire contractor offboarding to whatever system tracks contractor status, so device access ends when the engagement does.
• Write a policy engineers will respect, so they do not disable the agent, switch to a personal machine, or hide credentials where the company cannot see them.

A small consultancy with a stable core of Mac-based engineers and only occasional contractor hires gets the most out of Kandji: faster setup, a lighter agent, and less day-to-day friction. A firm built around a rotating bench of contractors, tracked through the same system that runs their payments, gets more value from Rippling's tighter tie between an engagement ending and access being cut. Neither choice is permanent, and plenty of firms outgrow their first pick as the mix of full-time staff versus contractors shifts over a year or two, so revisit the decision rather than treating it as fixed.