“The reasons for companies to switch from Windows to Mac OS X are as personal, or unique, as is any shift in religion. For some companies, the motivation is to move away from Windows. Others are influenced by their end users’ desire for the style and functionality of the Macintosh environment. But whatever the reason for the migration, the attraction must be backed by serious number-crunching and by common sense,” Lisa Nadile reports for CIO.
“This isn’t an article about the reasons to adopt Macintoshes in an enterprise setting. We assume that you’ve already decided to do so, whether because of company IT policy or user pressure. The issue, instead, is to make the transition as seamless as possible: to bring the new systems into sync with your existing IT infrastructure, to choose appropriate applications and to cope with always-finite budgets. If you are about to make a jump to Mac OS X, either partially or in toto, people who have been there have some advice,” Nadile reports.
Nadile reports, “Companies should be open to applications from smaller companies when developing their application parity plan, advises Thomas Larkin, network technician for Olathe District Schools in Olathe, Kansas. ‘The open-source community is a great resource for applications, and the user community can pretty much answer any questions out there,’ he says.”
“Executives should be looking for data compatibility when looking for applications on the Mac OS X platform, rather than looking for all the same software, says Jeremy Reichman, senior desktop systems engineer for the Rochester Institute of Technology. Reichman helps support about 15,000 students and 3,300 staff, 17 percent of whom use Macs,” Nadile reports.
Nadile reports, “Apple has its own Open Directory architecture. It can work in concert with Active Directory to provide features that Active Directory does not specifically make available to Mac OS X clients, according to Reichman.”
“Wilkes University decided to switch its 1,700 computers completely to Macs, phasing in Mac Intel-based systems over the next three years. Key to the plan is to use Boot Camp to support Windows users who may be reluctant to switch. Students and staff will soon be able to sit down in front of just about any computer on campus and choose which operating system they wish to use,” Nadile reports.
Much more in the full article here.
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