“Mac OS X Server [at US$49.99] costs 5% of what it cost just three years ago. Whatever your needs and whatever the software’s shortcomings, this is hard to ignore,” Andrew Cunningham reports for AnandTech. “For this reason alone, Lion Server will (and should) attract the attention of people who have never been in the market for server software before – home users, in particular – but it has to do so without alienating the business and education customers who currently rely on the software.”
“I’m approaching this review from a different angle than the Lion client review – while most people interested in an OS X review have at least a passing familiarity with the software, this review will be the first exposure to OS X Server for many of you,” Cunningham reports. “For that reason, among the descriptions of Lion Server’s features and comparisons with past versions of the software, I’m going to be going a little more in-depth about how to actually configure the services. Hopefully the newbies among you can use these instructions as jumping-off points as you explore the software on your own.”
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Cunningham reports, “OS X Server is most useful in a handful of different scenarios: the first is that you have a small network that’s in need of a full-featured but easy-to-manage and simple-to-license server product. The second is that you’re managing a network of any size that used to be all-Windows, but hosts a growing number of Macs (this is often the case in education, for example) – OS X Server knows that it’s going to be finding its way into a lot of Windows houses, and as such it integrates fairly well with existing Active Directory setups. The last is that you have a bunch of iOS devices flooding your network and you have no idea what to do with them – iOS management may be Lion Server’s ace in the hole. If any of this sounds familiar to you, you really ought to give Lion Server a try. At $50, there’s not much reason not to.”
Much more in the extensive full review – very highly recommended – here.