“Apple, long a ghost in the corporate-infrastructure mainstream, is beginning to cast a shadow as IT departments discover Mac platforms that are being transformed into realistic alternatives to Windows and Linux,” John Fontana reports for Network World.
Fontana reports, “A number of factors are helping raise the eyebrows of those responsible for upgrading desktops and servers: for example, Apple’s shift to the Intel architecture; the inclusion of infrastructure and interoperability hooks, such as directory services in the Mac OS X Server; dual-boot capabilities; clustering and storage technology; third-party virtualization software; and comparison shopping, which is being fostered by migration costs and hardware overhauls associated with Microsoft’s Vista.”
Fontana reports, “IT shops that have dipped their toes in Apple’s pool of desktop and server platforms say others should test the water. ‘Intel Macs have really changed things. Beyond the obvious comparisons — that Macs are now speed-parity with Wintel machines — vendors have been able to develop more software for the platform, and where that is impossible, virtual machines are always an option,’ says Scott Melendez, manager of enterprise messaging for the city and county of San Francisco, who brought Macs into governmental offices in 2003 and says they are there to stay alongside Windows machines. ‘There will always be a stigma by some old-time network managers — that Macs are difficult to network — from the AppleTalk days, or that they are difficult to support because it’s not Windows. By the end of 2007, however, I think the landscape will have changed.'”
“Others are being drawn in for a peek as they evaluate Microsoft’s Vista client operating system and what it will take to migrate. ‘The changes in Vista are significant enough that we think we can absorb the change going to Macs just as easily as going to Vista,’ says Tom Gonzales, a senior network administrator for the Colorado State Employees Credit Union in Denver. He says the thought of going to Apple is not as scary as it once was. ‘If you had asked me two years ago to consider Macs, I would have laughed. But Boot Camp and Parallels, anything we can’t do with our Macs we would be able to run a Windows environment under there,’ says Gonzales, who is currently in the Mac evaluation stage,” Fontana reports.
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bradley” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
New IBM software to help business to offer employees the choice of running Apple Macs – February 12, 2007
Gartner: Growth of Mac desktops in enterprise to hinder Linux more than Windows – January 02, 2007
Computerworld: Enterprise decision-makers should consider migrating to Mac OS X and Apple hardware – December 21, 2006
Apple’s Mac means business – December 18, 2006
Hands on: Parallels Desktop for Mac in a business setting – December 10, 2006
InfoWorld: Apple’s Mac OS X platform deserves good, hard look by enterprise – September 22, 2006
Prejudice keeps Apple Mac out of the enterprise – September 01, 2006
Boot Camp: Apple’s Trojan horse into the enterprise market? – April 05, 2006
wishfull thinking.
old stodgy pc guys will always be just that
they hate macs and always will
It’s time for the old-time network managers and IT directors to retire. Imagine 97,634 really old men and women all nicknamed “Patches”.
Nurse: What do you want?
Old IT Guy: Wuh.
Nurse: Water?
Old IT Guy: Wuh.
Nurse: What?
Old IT Guy: Wow. <slump>
I’ve been using Linux on my desktop since 1998 and Mac OS X for the last year and a half. So, I declared my independence from Windows 9 years ago. And I am Corporate environment, and an enterpreneur. I never felt the need to have Microsoft at my business.
So, other than proprietary application made for Windows (like accounting software or stuff like that), I don’t see any need to keep Windows in the office. And with a Mac now, you can always use Boot Camp or parallels for those really requiring Windows.
I was stodgy once.
Blah, Blah, Blah “I can still run Windows underneith” – Why the hell would you? If you are going to make the switch – Just do it….
A tech support guy I was talking to recently said that we’ve gone from 600 Macs on site to over 1000 in the past year. There are still over 6000 Windows PCs, but the Mac increase is good to see.
This is exciting but there are so many hurdles for Apple to get in the corporate space. To do this Apple will need to:
– Run Windows apps (Done)
– Make a real comitment to the corporate space (don’t know if Apple wants this)
– Start with small biz and work your way up
– Establish partnerships with enterprise software vendors (IBM, Oracle to name a few)
– Once some of the above are done then it needs to get into IT curriculums in US universities so tomorrow’s grads get exposure to something other than Windows. If Apple doesn’t address the political side of IT decision making it will never be a strong player in this space.
Come on Apple you can do it!
This isn’t too terribly surprising. I’ve worked for two large corporations in the last 10 years. Around half of the IT personnel at both used Macs personally and bemoaned having to use Windows at work.
Come on Apple you can do it!
—
They don’t want to. Apple is not a business company.
It’s amazing how the IT regime heads feel like if they switch toward Macs that somehow they’re being asked to walk the plank, or potentially walking the plank. Heck, dive in, you’ll never have it better. I’d have thought that the Intel switch, Apple’s enterprise pricing structures, etc. would have had these guys switching in droves much soon.
If Apple doesn’t, at some point, want to get into the enterprise, they are fools. And I don’t believe SJ is a fool. I think they haven’t focused on it in recent years because they didn’t think they could be successful; it would have been a waste of time & resources. That may be changing due to Bootcamp, Vista, etc.; so Apple should take gradual steps to get into this space and, if these pay off, take some more.
“Apple is not a business company.”
Peterson? Is that you?
What an incredibly generalized, dumbass thing to write. Someone turn off the mike. We’re just getting static.
http://www.apple.com/macatwork/
http://www.apple.com/pro/
@tjfoam
I think you’re dead-on, but it begs the real question, how many pc users are stodgy ole pc guys and how many are just the controlled masses going along with what they’re told to because, even if they cared, they wouldn’t have any choice anyway, and don’t feel they really know enough to get involved in the argument.
The Mac has got to make inroads to the enterprise market, not because enterprise is going to necessarily be a big market, but because of public perception – Real business is conducted on Windows bearing pcs, etc. etc.
There’s no way my IT dept. would consider Macs.
They tolerate me as my organisation’s single Mac user, on condition I look after my own system (not a problem; there’s no way I’d let them near it).
I’ve never quite figured out why there’s such staunch opposition to Macs from IT departments. I accept some of their arguments about supporting two platforms, but I can’t help but conclude that they also see a threat in Macs. If all I need from them is a few IP addresses, other users might not need much from them either.
One thing Apple could do to help Macs sneak into the corporate world is to improve Exchange compatibility. It’s not bad now, but it could be better.
@Whatever,
It’s called a security blanket – with the Winblows XP logo on it. Your IT guy is huddled in the corner with it, sucking on his thumb right now.
The IT department at the hospital I work at has a policy “No Macs on the network”. When asked why, the reply was, “they’ll screw it up”. No further explanation given despite my probing “how”.
IT departments are a dying breed (strange one at that) and they are scared.
Micro Me hit the nail on the head. I’m the sole Mac user in a Windows/Unix environment. I haven’t needed any IT assistance for my computer since I switched and asked to bring in my own hardware. The ONE thing that Apple needs to add to their line-up is better integration with Exchange – especially integrating the Exchange calendar with iCal. This is the one area where I really get a headache. Otherwise, no one really notices that I’m on a Mac unless they walk past my desk.
Same here I am the only one on Mac in my company. I also do not let the IT support guys near it, nor do they want to. I have never a need for them. But better parity on Exchange would be good as well as parity on Office. There are some features not implemented on the Mac side. Not that these are a show-stopper by any means… I also work at an international company (client of ours) and they have increasingly people walking around with macs. I also hear more and more people talking about that they have a Mac now, or are planning to buy one.
On some of the old IT guys I meet – they think I am running some fancy WinXP skin, or Vista when they glance on the screen. HA…
I’d also like to point out that Microsoft CALs increase the total cost of ownership and as a company gets larger Microsoft gets deeper into their pockets. Please make Roughly Drafted a regular feed for reading. That site has many articles that are beneficial for gaining knowledge to blow away the Mac stigma from your gay PC friends.. err, I mean PC friends.
Those of you doing the solo thing, take heart, everything changes eventually.
From about 1989 to 1994 I was the only Mac user at work and it was mine. Somehow it eventually go to the president of the company that I and a few others were using our own computers at work (at that time there were also a few Windows user that had their own machines at work as wel). Shortly thereafter the edict came down that no one was to use their own machines at work and the IT department was ordered to make sure that all personally owned computers were replaced with equivalent or better units. Long story medium – All of the Windows users got the latest Windows running hardware and I got one of the latest Macs, purchased by the company complete with software as specified by me. Later that year I became the desktop support guru for my department (among other things) and was ordered to go through the entire department, 30 people, and ask whether they wanted Macs or Windows pcs. Interestingly, with campaigning whatsoever, the group was about evenly split when given a free and clear choice, we ended up with 16 Mac desktops and 14 Windows desktops.
Perserverance can pay off when dealt with patiently (which I don’t have a lot of naturally – patience that is…), and for me it payed-off with interest, sort of. I’ve had a similar experience with my current employer, when I started six years ago there was one Mac in the entire facility and it was personally owned (not mine). As a result of some well thought out (and written out) rationales combined with departmental support, we now have 9 G5 workstations, 1 MacPro workstation, and 2 laptops. This last fall we installed 3.5TB XRAID and 2 Dual G5 Xservers, and last week we added an additional 3.5TB to our XRAID arrays. The company is generally so happy with this setup that it has just started requiring Apple XRAIDs to be used for all server setups in the building. Macs are still the minority, but the backbone is moving to Apple, and slowly but surely desktops are following suite.
Moral of story – Hang in there, and watch for opportunities to begin to turn things around in small ways, then bigger ways, then big ways.
“…with NO campaigning whatsoever…”
I use an “unsupported” solitary Mac in a large federal government office. The e-mail system is Lotus Notes (not my favorite) and the Mac client that I have works at least as well as the Windows client.
The other computer at my desk is a Dell. After some recurring screen flickering the monitor was replaced. The flickering continued so the CPU was replaced. The flickering still happens and now the mouse cursor freezes every few hours for no apparent reason. Despite multiple visits from IT support, the only relief found for the frozen arrow is to reboot or else unplug the mouse and then plug it back in.
I use Windows only a fraction of the time. My Mac works without a hitch while Uncle Sam spends tax dollars on outsourced Windows support.
It’s funny. The thing that most people seem to overlook, is the fact that most IT organizations are made up of people who are solely in the business of keeping themselves needed, valued, and necessary. As such, those people have no real incentive to make things better, to drive down costs, or to be more efficient, or that would equate to a loss of jobs, quite possibly their own. Why would you want to improve the system if doing so significantly risks your livelihood?
Certainly there is something to be said for the fear of change, but in reality, it comes down to the IT industry keeping themselves employed. As soon as a company is able to come to the realization that its IT department has a self-serving interest, it’s at that point where real change has the opportunity to occur. Sadly, this realization rarely happens.
“A number of factors are helping raise the eyebrows of those responsible for upgrading desktops and servers: for example, Apple’s shift to the Intel architecture;”
and
“that Macs are now speed-parity with Wintel machines”
I can’t stand this! Why do lots of people think that the intel x86 processors are superior to everything else, including IBM’s powerpc processors?
The x86 is just a flawed 1970s design that has been modified to make it faster. The only advantage these prehistoric processors give is the ability to run window$ natively.
I dunno. I’m tired.
“MDN Magic Word” were, as in PC people were ignorant, and still are.