“Mac skills have long been seen as superfluous for IT professionals; Apple platforms are rarely used in medium and large enterprises, and not even the release of the OS X operating system chipped away at Windows’ claim on the IT department. Yet some observers feel that this is set to change,” Deb Perelman reports for eWeek.
“Between October 2007 and January 2008, two dozen researchers at IBM participated in an internal pilot program designed to investigate the possibility of migrating employees to the Mac platform. At the end of the trial, 86 percent of the testers asked to continue using their Macs, leading IBM to plan to expand the pilot to 100 users by the end of 2008,” Perelman reports.
“‘I have been a true PC stalwart for two-plus decades, but after trying Vista, I’m ready for a change,’ commented one pilot program participant,” Perelman reports.
“But who will support this change? A common conception is that the IT department will not embrace Macs willingly,” Perelman reports. “‘There is almost a religious belief by existing IT staff in the Windows religion, and it’s a symbiotic relationship: They keep getting Microsoft certifications and they keep telling their bosses to continue buying Windows,’ Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil told eWEEK.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jim H.” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: It’s not a “religious belief,” it’s a mental illness; a combination of Stockholm Syndrome and Cognitive Dissonance, to be precise. Inflict enough pain on someone and you can reduce them to sniveling sycophants in no time. It’s the Microsoft Way™. More on that here: Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness.
As for IT’s willingness: CEOs, who runs the company, you or the IT guy? It’s your job to make the decisions and it’s the IT guy’s job to implement your decisions that relate to technology. You need to educate yourself instead of relying on someone with their own, possibly hidden, agendas to make extremely important technology decisions for your company. Most of you could be saving a lot of money right now, but you aren’t, because you’ve delegated an important and expensive portion of your company’s decision-making process to people who, frankly, in our experience, aren’t capable of making good, sound, strategic, long-term decisions. Most IT guys (and we know many) are not open-minded enough to be able to consider new, better, more efficient, more effective options that would benefit your company. In fact, most IT guys we’ve met will throw up road blocks and repeat myths until they’re blue in the face simply in order to avoid change. Especially change that might make their department less critical and smaller. Bottom line: most of you CEOs have given the IT guy way too much power. It’s time to take it back.
No they will never be in the near future. I’ll tell you why, because a few of them had actually asked me to make sure Appletalk is turned off on Macs at the graphics department. They don’t want the network saturated with too much chatter from Appletalk. I just looked at them in disbelief. It will take a new generation that will replace these dinosaurs for Apple to make a small dent. It will also take real guts from the GOV to stop the MONOPOLY from continuing in order for Apple to gain some solid market share.
Leopard on an OQO –
Slow but technologically feasible.
Now Apple, how about time for another Ibook? Say in the $499 range? All the computer most of us need. Two plugs for a full size keyboard and a full size monitor, and call it good for 90% of what most folks that use portable for…. Make an OQO with Flashbased hard drive and you really do have a computer for the rest of us…..
Might cut into Iphone sales but believe it or not, many folks don’t need a Iphone. I need a phone, I need a computer, and where the ‘twain doth meet’ I have Skype.
OQO Smallest Leopard machine.
Sorry Forgot to reference ‘Oh My’ earlier up in the string
Well, the Mac doesn’t actually work well enough yet, and Apple’s support is too poor.
I have just had to abandon a project to move an application from Exchange/SQL to Apple Mail/Filemaker Pro because Mail & Applescript don’t work properly: the script results in a very untidy crash in the mail client.
I am afraid this is typical. I haven’t used Leopard server but Tiger server is very flakey indeed.
And there is no meaningful support.
There will be, one day – but Apple has a long, long, long way to go.
And, by the way, I am not a windows troll – I despise microsoft. But business is business – and Apple are not in the business market except as a niche player…
Sadly, no. Here there is specific animosity towards macs, holding on to the old views of overpriced elitist computers. Guess they would rather spend their money on antivirus software and million dollar Microsoft service contracts. The one VP who did support macs had switched jobs….maybe I should take the hint.
@It isn’t about religion: “It’s about the money”.
Yeah, just like religion!
I am sorry but I have to disagree whole heartedly with MDN’s take. You HIRE the IT guy to make the decisions on technology and what hardware/software platforms to use to meet business objectives and goals. CEOs shouldn’t be making those decisions.
What (I believe) you are saying is the CEOs should be hiring the right IT professionals who can make the right cost/benefit analysis and be open to the best possible hardware/software platforms to meet those objectives. If that means Macs then you want someone that can pull the trigger and get the job done.
For medium sized enterprises, it is a very costly challenge (at least in short term cash flow) to change platforms across the board. What I am doing, and I suspect many others are doing, are to start changing over 1 department at a time.
Unlike Therapguy (who sounds like an idiot), nobody is fearful of losing their jobs if they adapt to change. For instance, many CIO/CTOs would love to free up 20-30% of their staffs’ time to work on meaningful projects instead of ongoing maintenance and support. I don’t layoff any employees…they just get re-purposed to do more work that impacts our bottom line.
Apple’s strategy: Consumer adoption first and those consumers will continually champion the cause with their companies to get Mac’s in enterprise.
At our large manufacturing/retail company I’m seeing more and more Macs. However, they’re mostly confined to higher level managers, designers and testers (mostly for web/system compatibility). Too many of the tools we use are Windows (and even IE) specific to allow the actual IT workers to use Macs. And, of course, those managers all have MBPs just to do eMail, but us workers, who could use the video and horse power, have to make do with crummy 2nd rate Windows laptops. </rant>
Good take MDN. Usually, you are around the bend on the Mac love, but this time you’ve hit it.
MDN – to answer your question, “Hell no.” I work for a very large company and we have squads upon squads upon squads of “classic” IT types.
Having said that though, Apple is gaining some traction OUTSIDE of the company. Several of my coworker have recently inquired about Apple for their home use (a highly visible portion of my cube – yep cube – has Apple articles all over it. In fact a lot of articles on the wall were mentioned here.)
To the company’s (?) credit – my company is part of the “The Macintosh Guild” – which does get us discounts on products which Apple sells. (Anywhere from 5 ~ 15% for Apple branded products.) But then again, we have several discount programs – ATT, Dell, Microsoft (any program we have at work we can get for home use for $20.00 – includes Mac versions of Office.) etc.
Peace.
I work for one of the largest school districts in Arizona, and most of our computer decisions have been made by short-sighted people that are more interested in job security than what is best for the students. They will always sing the mantra that Macs are more expensive and cost more to maintain. It’s ironic that ignorance is holding back an institution whose sole purpose is education.
El Guapo –
most of our computer decisions have been made by short-sighted people
Not sure if having computer decisions made by tall, blind people is any better.
Peace.
@ grognard
Thanx fer the credit —
I’m surprised MDN hasn’t been all over that one by now–
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I wonder what their “take” would be ?
One good reason to not let Macs on a mixed network (at least those using AppleShare as opposed to SMB) is the fact that Macs tend to litter files all in every folder an OS X user visits. Some of these are invisible and can be hidden by Windows (default config), but some files show up even when that setting is turned off.
There are tools that allow you to configure a Mac so it doesn’t deposit these files, but that’s a hassle that would not be welcome for a large Mac roll-out.
Funny how this “IT is anti-Mac” nonsense is still be plugged here at MDN. Those of us that actually spend time in corporate IT departments and see all the iPhones and Mac laptops that have appeared will beg to differ of course. Apple’s lack of decent corporate support, lack of published roadmap, and insistence on single-vendor lock-in mean for the enterprise the Mac isn’t even on the radar unless for small specialised deployments. IT staff these days think Macs are great, but still aren’t suitable.
Personally I’d love nothing more than to get rid of all the Microsoft software at my clients, but if it were to happen it would be to Linux, not OSX. Most enterprises will say the same.
@ Oh My
You deserve the credit for this find. MDN isn’t all over it because I don’t think they see the implications. If a niche product like OQO can be unlocked and loaded with OSX ( evidently no hardware additions) how long will it be before this can be done on a Viao or gasp, a Dell? I wonder how how they ‘fooled’ the OQO to recognize and install OSX (clearly I’m no programmer)?
I think the form factor of the OQO is cool though – Perfect for a quick web surf while traveling or a quick e-mail, and then dock it full screen and keyboard for real work at a desk or back in the Hotel.
86 percent of two dozen (24) people? So, 20.64 people wanted to keep their Macs? Must be the “new math”!
@fatal
Wow, you took the words right out of my mouth! I was so anxious to get my two cents in that I didn’t read your post. Sorry. Great minds and all that.
Wasn’t this a rehash on another IT won’t support mac tirade article a week or so ago?
Anyways this is a very hard sell for large 5000+ employee companies. With cost effectiveness beaten into our heads and having us question if we need to order a new stapler, what fool would suggest we migrate X number of users to a mac that:
1. would need support, if I surveyed our 1000+ IT department I might find 10 people besides myself who use a mac daily
2. cost of hardware. Again .. make a G5 barebones built for business for under $1000 and it would sell.
3. Network / LDAP / AD intergration, again further expense to make it “work”
4. internal applications – we have hundreds of these that would need to be converted to run on mac (or what have users use fusion / parrells?)
Sure I can see there *might* be ROI / TCO reduction once your fully moved, but there is huge cost conversion involved as well education / training.
What is with the whole IT rant, apple has certification too. If I want to know something I learn it and make myself proficient with TECHNOLOGY be it windows, OS X, Linux etc this whole beat on IT be it MBP, Iphone is getting old, we support what companies pay us to support, these descisions are made at the CIO level and for large companies your dealing with several across different IT divisions.
Maybe Apple will next try to be Cisco so my CCNA isn’t of value because I havn’t switched to the latest apple switch?
Get a clue.
@Tommy Boy
I Wish That Every Company Is Like You…. Oh How I Wish…
(Now Stuck With A Lighting & Furniture Company And All Of Them Uses Windows, Don’t Even Know What A Mac Can Do…. *Sigh*)
I am a VP of Finance and when I requested a Mac half-serious, our CFO ran it by our new CIO and he state I could use my own Mac if I wanted to, but that our IT department would not support it. Thankfully, Macs don’t need much support. I also learned shortly thereafter that our new CIO has plans to move our entire company over to Vista in the next year or two. With that in mind, I am going to bring an old G4 tower that I have into the office to use for work. It already runs circles around my core duo Dull laptop running XP and there really isn’t a single application that I need that is only on XP. We run Oracle Financials and it works just fine on Safari.
The tide is turning though. If I would have asked the same question a few years ago, the answer would have been a definite NO!
@ Ampar
No, I don’t work for Ryobi, but I do have a large collection of their power tools. I’m a bit upset, though, that the friction lock on my router broke off. Other than that, all my Ryobi gear is top notch, including my 18v 6 Pack set. Nothing like having a battery powered tiger saw to fight the kudzu. Good stuff.
@ Seahawk
Hey, you’ve been there! You’re very brave to walk under Suicide Bridge to get there. I’ve been very nearly hit by jumpers on several occasions, though I haven’t seen a good splat in a while. Be sure to park your car IN THE GARAGE.
@Lurker_PC,
“a highly visible portion of my cube – yep cube – has Apple articles all over it.”
(sniff, sniff) Thank you for the moving memorial.
@C1,
So…..uhhh…..what else are you doing with that Ryobi gear? Customizing any of it?