“Apple is finally making serious inroads into corporate networks,” Vin D’Amico reports for IndUS Business Journal. “Meanwhile, Microsoft is under increasing pressure to respond to the criticism that Windows Vista has endured.”
“Windows is growing old. Vista is a near disaster. Microsoft is getting beat up badly by Apple’s television advertising,” D’Amico reports.
“Switching computer platforms is never simple but this may be the right time to consider it,” D’Amico reports.
“Macs are easy to use and standards compliant. They are built on Unix and support open standards such as Samba file and print services, NFS file sharing, RADIUS access, LDAP authentication, and even Microsoft Active Directory. Newer Intel-based Macs can also boot Windows and run it natively if the need arises,” D’Amico reports.
“Macs are generally viewed as being more expensive than Windows PCs but that is not necessarily true. Apple focuses on high-performance, value-added configurations. When you compare similarly equipped systems, costs are comparable,” D’Amico reports. “Macs may be a good fit for users needing fast machines.”
“Migrating to Macs is not an all or nothing proposition. Most companies would be best served by integrating Macs into portions of their environments. Start with workgroups who need high-performance systems such as in graphics design and video creation. Other starting points include Website design, engineering, training, and IT teams,” D’Amico reports. “Another area where Macs excel is mobility. Executives and sales people who travel frequently may benefit from the small form factors that Apple offers.”
“As Apple grows its consumer business, there will be increasing pressure on corporations to adopt the Mac. Some of this pressure will come from recent college graduates, many of whom are Mac users. They will want to continue using Macs when entering the workforce,” D’Amico reports.
“Macs are generally more stable and virus-resistant than Windows,” D’Amico reports. “They are easier to use and built on open standards. Maybe it is time to test the barriers to Mac adoption in your company.”
Full article here.
Go get ’em, Apple!
“Macs are generally more stable and virus-resistant than Windows,” D’Amico reports. “They are easier to use and built on open standards”
Absulutely agree!! I have 15 years using Macs and I have never use “Antispyware” or antivirus software. I am not saying that there are no virus for Mac, What I said is that no mater if there are virus or not, They have never cause any problem at all.
I am a “Wintel” Engineer and it is like going on vacation to get home and use my Mac after the infernal pressure of using Windows PSc at work.
It’s funny that this comes at a time when Microsoft’s PR machine wants to get away from the suit-business image and desperately strives to be as cool and hip as a Mac.
Oh, the irony.
@ elgarak
And when M$ tries to be as cool as Mac, they still get people on their “ads” to talk about their office, not their leisure space (whatever that might be).
Microsoft Who???
These articles seem to pop up every week and it’s an interesting idea but in the current economy I can tell you at our Fortune 100 company if this was brought up it would be promptly squashed.
The IT budget is under extremely tight controls and oversight and a “switch” would incur a ton a cost that frankly we and I’m betting the majority of big business don’t have. Most companies are striving to remain profitable and in business.
While I enjoy using my G5 at home it’s mostly for media use, hardly what I use at work and while many of my work application are likely on the mac you are looking at multiple licensing agreements etc which means more work to manage. This is all easy to do in small businesses area which is where apple will have some success but nothing is out there compeling a switch that shows true ROI type gain.
Can analysts stop with the virus threat? We track virus activity monthly and it’s barely a blip anymore .. SPAM and malware are the main problem and as apple gains market share you can bet these things will migrate along.
For the sake of comparasion
Current Dell desktop = $600
Typical Mac = $1,500 + Fusion or similar for native pc apps that don’t have equivelant mac version.
Umm where is the savings? multiple this out by 1,000 of pc’s and I fail to see even with a lower break / fix how apple will ever regain the dollar difference. You still need to have tech’s to support and still deal with warrenty repair and last I checked apple is terrible in that roll.
Reality is different that fantasy.
Viktor,
I agree. I’ve been going bare for years.
Wait. Were you talking about antivirus software?
Nevermind.
MobileAdmin,
Don’t viruses fall under the malware category?
Regarding the pricing issue of mass purchases and the issue of how poorly the economy is doing, thus reducing the likelihood of any major IT purchases, I agree.
“Umm where is the savings? multiple this out by 1,000 of pc’s and I fail to see even with a lower break / fix how apple will ever regain the dollar difference. You still need to have tech’s to support and still deal with warrenty repair and last I checked apple is terrible in that roll.”
Indeed. The savings are fantasy as is the ostensible support nightmare that Windows is supposed to be. It’s damn expensive to change platforms; ask any director that’s involved in a corporate merger. Folks also tend to ignore the simple fact that Apple does not care one whit about corporate sales or support–there’s not enough money in it for them vis a vis the consumer marketplace.
As market share grows, look out for two things:
1. Fall off in quality – latest example being the killer plug fiasco
2. More and more and more ‘security updates’
@ MobileAdmin, Another IT Guy…
The savings with Macs are in all the scurrying about that you do to keep those Window boxes running. With Macs, a great percentage of the IT staff becomes unnecessary. There is the savings you are overlooking.
It’s called TCO – Total Cost of Ownership. Studies have found Macs to be significantly less expensive over the lifespan of the machine. TCO is something your CxOs will understand.
Agreed on the economy issues, but bad times won’t last forever and the refresh cycles will come due.
— A Mac IT guy
It’s 2008 and I’d wager almost every large enterprise is running some form of remote system management. (SMS, System Center 2007 etc) so unsure who is out there “scurrying about”. The whole less IT staff arguement has never been proven out either.
Presently of the 6,800 users supported I’d say the current ratio user / tech is 350 -1 so even if you could squeeze that out to 500 -1 that would be one pretty busy tech. No matter how automated you still have a need for IT people regardless. So unless said Mac techs work for a lot less (most desktop positions don’t pay THAT much to start with) .. the TCO model is still going to be lower due to the initial migration / hardware cost.
* Jupiter Research agrees that Macs are equal and sometimes lower in price than comparable PCs. True, there are much cheaper PCs, but you get what you pay for.
* Macs can run nearly every program that exists, thanks to Bootcamp and Parallels.
* Macs are standards compliant.
* Macs are highly stable and secure, meaning greater efficiency and increased production. It also means savings from not needing anti-virus software.
* Multiple studies show that Macs have fewer problems that are solved faster.
* Macs are easily integrated into a PC network.
* Apple provides high quality service and support enterprise contracts.
* For many business uses, Macs come equipped with free software that handles most basic needs; Office or iWork can be easily installed if necessary.
* Any change of platform is going to be expensive. However, with XP becoming dated and Vista a nightmare, some form of upgrade is eventually going to be inevitable. When that happens, the investment of Macs in the system will lead to reduced upkeep costs with increased productivity and morale.
To the IT???? guys,
“Current Dell desktop = $600
Typical Mac = $1,500 + Fusion or similar for native pc apps that don’t have equivelant mac version.
Umm where is the savings? multiple this out by 1,000 of pc’s and I fail to see even with a lower break / fix how apple will ever regain the dollar difference. You still need to have tech’s to support and still deal with warrenty repair and last I checked apple is terrible in that roll.”
You can come up with any kind of figures to support your case that you want to. But Macs seem to last about twice as long as PCs so that is 1200 vs 1500, and they are easier to keep running so the tech support spends time doing important stuff and not wiping viruses.
I come in to my clients and turn on my pc. I then wait up to 40 minutes for it to down load its daily virus and spyware material. Until then its useless. And there are several “.exe” programs that tend to run wild with cpu cycles. Even Microsoft knows about it but is not sure what to do. Maybe a complete dump and reload of Windows, spyware, applications, data, etc, etc etc. sounds like time wasted to me.
So, run what ever computer you want at your company. My company uses Macs, 100%. And me and Apple care are the IT guy there.
Just a thought,
en
Hahahahaha,
$600 Del = $1500 Macs;
ROI not proven etc etc
= Hahahahahah!!
Ohh, gee thanks, woooo! Haven’t such as good laugh for such a long time. Thanks again.
I make an EXTREMELY good living as an IT process improvement consultant, and I have multinational clients.
And the sad story is these “IT guys with Macs at home” believe what they say.
Oh well, good for me I guess that the “professionals” are stupid…keeps the big $ rolling in…
The iMac is hugely popular for Apple. Why mess with it? Why would they change there Mac line-up to satisfy a niche market?
Mac Mini > introduction / switcher Mac
iMac > consumer Mac
Mac Pro > professional Mac
If they change the options of one it effects the others.
If you want to have the ability to swap gfx cards etc buy a Mac Pro, a base configuration Mac Pro is good value anyway imho anyway (for the hardware that you’re getting), and most people (apart from pros) just dont need to do this.
I think some IT people are worried about losing their jobs if the company goes Mac. Compare other costs (hardware failure, maintain, etc..) plus the saving of eliminating the whole IT department and the Mac is much less than a PC. Like stated above, we are our own IT department because very little goes wrong and what does usually is easy to fix. Mac’s are cheaper than PC’s in the short run and long run.
Another IT Guy is dead on.
Apple would have to do a heck of a lot more than just come out with a mini tower to woo IT folks in any meaningful numbers.
Micros**t spent years and billions of dollars building the infrastructure necessary to service enterprise while Apple piddlefarted around with OS9 and iTunes. Apple is NOT ready and to my knowledge has not spent a penny on any kind of support for business customers.
You have to understand something here.
IT people do not view Apple products as toys because of how they look or how the OS behaves, they view them as toys because APPLE has zero support and zero consideration for IT people. You can’t tell a IT pro to bring his crashed computer to the nearest Apple Store and expect him to take you seriously.
To turn the headline on its head:
Time for Apple to get serious about Businesses.
Sorry, but it’s just plain false that somehow IT people are worried about losing their jobs if the company goes Mac.
Ever heard the phrase ‘the devil you know’?
IT people are worried about being unable to do their jobs if the company goes Mac. They’re worried about being given a whole new platform to learn. They’re worried about Apple’s shoddy enterprise track record, and they’re worried about having to use a stupid putty knife to pry open a Mac mini.
And just how the heck are Mac users their own IT dept???
Does Sally MacBook know how to integrate her laptop into a Windows network?? Does she know what a static IP address is?? Or what DHCP means??
@ @Mike:
> And just how the heck are Mac users their own IT dept???
> Does Sally MacBook know how to integrate her laptop into a Windows network?? Does she know what a static IP address is?? Or what DHCP means??
If you think Mac users need to know these things to join a Windows network, then you surely know nothing about Macs.
On top of the total cost of ownership TCO is the TCPM, the total cost of profit making. That from my experience skyrockets with a Mac. So keep your IT support and Windoze machines, it just helps us Mac users out compete you.
“You can’t tell a IT pro to bring his crashed computer to the nearest Apple Store and expect him to take you seriously.”
That always makes me laugh, how Mac users think they got great service because they carried their Mac to an Apple store and Apple only took it off them for a couple of weeks to fix it whereas enterprise Dell customers get pissed off because they put the call in 4hrs ago and the tech got there after 3.5hrs and going to be taking at least another hour to fix the PC.
“it just helps us Mac users out compete you.”
There is no example of a large business which uses Macs out competing a similar large business which uses Windows.
In fact, if you look at the numbers, they overwhelmingly prove if you use a Mac for business then you are either work in an area like graphic design where Macs were strong 10 years ago and have kept that strength, or work for a very small company which isn’t going to get much bigger.
“The savings with Macs are in all the scurrying about that you do to keep those Window boxes running. With Macs, a great percentage of the IT staff becomes unnecessary. There is the savings you are overlooking.
It’s called TCO – Total Cost of Ownership. Studies have found Macs to be significantly less expensive over the lifespan of the machine. TCO is something your CxOs will understand.”
This is the fantasy of which I spoke. If you’re scurrying in a tech support role, you work in a small shop or (more likely) you should be fired for administrative incompetence. Who are these enterprises hiring IT staff to scurry about fixing Windows systems? Macolytes seem to forget that enterprises have integrated systems management tools that are necessary when dealing with hundreds and thousands of systems. Even at our current ratio of 175 users – 1 support tech, we redistribute regional infrastructure projects (VOIP systems, data-telco issues, etc) to those same techs–they have more to do than just address PBKAC issues.
As to CxOs understanding TCOs, pushing Mac/Parallels in addition to Windows is a non-sequitor. Forget that Apple has no credible corporate support infrastructure. In so many environments already running Windows and various Linux appliances, where is the benefit in implementing yet another platform that will require additional licensing, support, maintenance, acquisition, et al.? It’s not that Macs have no place in the enterprise, but there’s this ongoing pipe dream (largely from folks that don’t actually work in a medium to large enterprise) that if they would only change to a Mac platform they would never had user-related issues or infrastructure challenges. It’s just not the case. It’s more complicated than that.
Here in Berlin, the Springer Press is changing to Macs over the next 18 months.
This involves about 12 thousand computers.
They’re doing it for ‘financial reasons’.
Previously they had Macs in a few departments and noticed that the TCO was less.