“Adopters of Apple server and storage gear say the technology is ready for the rigors of enterprise IT duty. They point to the vendor’s shift to the Intel architecture, plus its support of directory services, clustering and other technology advances,” Deni Connor reports for Network World.
“Not to say Apple still doesn’t have plenty of doubters, who say the company should stick to its consumer efforts,” Connor reports.
Connor reports, “We heard from both sides – and some in between – in recent weeks after we put out a call to readers to get their views on Apple’s enterprise readiness. While we weren’t exactly flooded with responses – which in itself might say something about Apple’s standing in the enterprise – roughly three-quarters of the those who did weigh in are bullish on Apple’s enterprise offerings and direction. That’s consistent with a poll we ran on our Web site earlier this year, in which 80% of the nearly 900 respondents said Macintosh servers and desktops are ready for the enterprise.”
Full article here.
Just wait until Leopard Server offers an alternative to Exchange…
MD: now, as in ship it right NOW!
Web polls??? I wouldn’t invest much on these guy’s “research”.
Of course they are! Macs have traditionally been used in an enterprise environment from day one, especially in the print media, where journalist in the field file their stories and pictures via the internet to their offices where they are edited and then sent to the printers. At the printers, the files go directly to the printers computers and printing is done.
All this has been going on while PC’s have been in the home as gaming machines, which they predominantly still are today.
Asking this question is an implication that the questioner has not done any research or is unfamiliar with Macs or has been sponsored by FUDmongers.
The hardware has been always ready. I agree with Tommy Boy. Leopard Server will have many features that would make it competitive with Windows Server. The Exchange competitor is key. Overall, Apple will have great alternatives to Microsoft’s offerings, especially when it comes to price.
FUDwallahs rule! O.K
Yeah! @ Darth Avenus, You gets what you pays for!
Apple have never followed M$, rather M$ have always imitated Apple.
The first Apple server was introduced in 1993 called “The Workgroup Server 95”
The first M$ server was introduced in 2000 as Windows 200 or Win2K, it was part of the NT line. Windows NT was released in 1993 but not as a server but a Network based software, hence ‘NT’
Shouldn’t the headline read:
Is the enterprise ready for Apple Mac?
The enterprise has to think different about Microsoft’s proprietary software, licensing schemes and end user productivity.
We know Apple hardware is equal to, or superior to anything out there, OS stability is not an issue, security is excellent and support for open standards is quite thorough making the investment in Apple rather sound.
With Apple’s advantages, someone please tell me, why would a business deploy Windows everywhere?
@ C
So NT Server wasn’t a server then?
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Hi guys and Gals!!!
SMILE!!!!!!
C: You get a C minus.
Actual NT designation:
“It is popularly believed that Dave Cutler intended the initialism ‘WNT’ as a pun on VMS, incrementing each letter by one, similar to the apocryphal (and false) story of Arthur C. Clarke’s deriving HAL 9000’s name by decrementing each letter of IBM. While this would have suited Cutler’s sense of humor, the project’s earlier name of NT OS/2 belies this theory. Another of the original OS/2 3.0 developers, Mark Lucovsky, states that the name was taken from the Intel i860 processor—code-named N10 (or ‘N-Ten’)—which served as the original target hardware. Various Microsoft publications, including a 1998 question-and-answer session with Bill Gates, reveal that the letters were expanded to ‘New Technology’ for marketing purposes but no longer carry any specific meaning. Confusion about what NT stood for led to humorous speculation among industry insiders that it stood for ‘Not Tested’.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT)
Unix and its services havent been around long enough. Maybe when it proves itself. Maybe. Friggin Jerkoffs! Thats a really stupid question at this point. Ofcourse OS X is ready for the enterprise.
I thought that the:
Dandys Rule, OK
Did you go to last night’s show?
Whoa! When these chuckleheads in corporate IT depts say that the Mac is ready for the enterprise, that’s the time to jump ship!
Remember, these are the pinheads that have shackled corporate America w/ the dreck we all know & dislike….
Maybe they were referring to the Mac being ready for the ‘Starship’ Enterprise
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As others have stated, Leopard is going to be a very big deal. Apple is shooting for full Posix certification, important in the enterprise. If the ZFS rumors are true, Apple will have a top notch enterprise class file system, something abandoned by Vista years ago. And Time Machine will be a very big deal in the SMB market — and in the consumer market too.
The hardware and OS X Server are ready. What’s not there, is an adequately-staffed professional services organization. I’m planning to use quite a lot of Xserve and Xserve RAID units in my current business venture, but I have no plans to rely on Apple to service them. I can do so because we’re an engineering company. If we were in a different line of work, I might well go with Sun or IBM.
-jcr
The hardware and OS X Server are ready. What’s not there, is an adequately-staffed professional services organization. I’m planning to use quite a lot of Xserve and Xserve RAID units in my current business venture, but I have no plans to rely on Apple to service them. I can do so because we’re an engineering company. If we were in a different line of work, I might well go with Sun or IBM.
-jcr
The hardware and OS X Server are ready. What’s not there, is an adequately-staffed professional services organization. I’m planning to use quite a lot of Xserve and Xserve RAID units in my current business venture, but I have no plans to rely on Apple to service them. I can do so because we’re an engineering company. If we were in a different line of work, I might well go with Sun or IBM.
-jcr
The hardware and OS X Server are ready. What’s not there, is an adequately-staffed professional services organization. I’m planning to use quite a lot of Xserve and Xserve RAID units in my current business venture, but I have no plans to rely on Apple to service them. I can do so because we’re an engineering company. If we were in a different line of work, I might well go with Sun or IBM.
-jcr
It isn’t a question of the Mac being ready for the enterprise. It’s a question of the enterprise (specifically IT managers) being ready for the Mac.
There’s a lot of fear in IT about the Mac making them redundant, and some of it is justified. As the old guard retires there’s a chance that the new guys won’t be so scared. We’ll have to wait and see.
I wish Apple could develop a web admin control panel as it exists for Linux and Windows and make it for “The Rest of Us”
OSX Server is NOT!
So if Apple wants to enter the huge server market why drop the ball on this????
I run several servers, but I cant go to Mac because of this.
Hardware is fine. Software is nowhere near close. It’s not the OS that’s the issue, it’s the enterprise applications. Where are the equivalents to Exchange, Sharepoint, Enterprise Project Manager, etc, etc. It’s not yet close to being ready.
To crack the enterprise, Apple needs on both Windows and Mac platforms: Office (done), file sharing (done), print sharing (done), email (done), iChat (please do), Calendaring (please do) and cross-platform app development (done). Plus design a cheap administration box (MacMini with 1-2 slots).
Not much to do then!
Death to FUDwallahs.
Why is the enterprise market so unaware of the fact that windows is the devil?
REALLY wtf… it sucks in every possible way. and OSX does not.. why would ANY person or business want to subject themselves to windows? – I mean IF it worked that would be one thing.. there is no defence for windows.. ITS BROKEN. why would you use soemhting that is BROKEN?!?