Comments on: How Apple is getting into the Enterprise

By: Squeak

Squeak — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:34:17 +0000

I think Apple is in enterprise BECAUSE of the innovative products,
and that Enterprise as it is- doesn’t think differently enough
for Apple to really develop for it.
Apple Server hardware and software has been a nice product,
and a niche product: Film/Audio/Design/Lab – though it can
do all of what other Enterprise PC and Linux installs do and is just
as competent for large scale operations- i don’t see Vendors
offering it as a solution to any big clients other than schools and
research. But when that large Sun Boxed corp decides it needs to
podcast its share holder meetings or put up some self promotion etc they might consider getting Apple Server since
it will do that beautifully, and then after that’s been realized
perhaps the next server they need to replace will be with Apple
products (Xsan/Raid/FCProServer or Apple Servers). So the strategy is defined as “trickle in” rather than “you need to replace everything now!”. Of course I’ve seen end-of -lease
server contracts replace 20 Mixed servers with 4 (yes 4!) Apple
servers and end up with more throughput disk space and speed.
Apple Server (10.5 is a little green but will stabilize soon) is
a great product.

By: Dana

Dana — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:01:23 +0000

I agree… Apple is the best. I am a new convert from Vista and life-long Windows use. I’ve started the conversion a year ago with a MacBook I am so thrilled with new desktop, my laptop, and my new iPhone. I am eager to get Daylight into the Leopard system, and then everything will be COMPLETE (after using ACT for many years with my PCs). Bravo to Apple and everyone who has believed and known all along that they are just the best And fyi–I’m not a computer expert of any sort, but Apple products make me feel like one.

By: Anthony Hess

Anthony Hess — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:32:57 +0000

I am all for Apple’s fast paced innovation, but removing the ability to boot the “old” OS just a few months after the new one is out is just one of the things that makes it hard to recommend them across the enterprise.

I don’t think Apple is going to have great luck getting into big companies (SMB is probably different) until they actually care about that market – whether or not execs like iPhones or have Macs at home.

… and MS is only a very small part of “Enterprise IT”. Ever heard of Oracle? SAP? A million other software packages?

I’d say one of out 5 of our IT “leadership” are Mac users at home at this point – yet none of us are pushing to move the Mac into the enterprise because of Apple’s complete lack of interest in the market.

By: Jamie Pruden

Jamie Pruden — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:33:42 +0000

Wow… what Brock said.

I work in education and am in a similar situation with generally slow adoption of new stuff. That situation is changing… we’re getting ready to move to tablet computing and Apple would be our vendor of choice… if they had a tablet computer. We really want to go with one HW vendor and the combination of a tablet and a MacBook would allow us to run Windows for those that prefer it and Mac OS X for those that want to really get their work done.

By: el pedro

el pedro — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:49:53 +0000

I’m the IT Manager for a branding/ad agency of about 40 people and we’re 97% OS X 10.4 (one Windows user). Easily the most problematic software I deal with is made by Microsoft; fine, its a Mac port so its understandable that it won’t work especially well, etc etc. But I’ve dealt with Office on XP for long enough to know that M$ simply doesn’t provide the level of quality and polish on its software products that Apple does.

Office on the Mac is ‘good enough’ for most people – turn off those Fast Save options or watch PPT eat your homework – but after seeing Apple’s idea of software and hardware design more and more people are agreeing that good enough, isn’t anymore.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:49:24 +0000

#4
The other dirty little secret is MS Outlook, which is not really ready for primetime on the Mac (hence why it is called Entourage).

Now, if you are running Lotus Notes, there is not that much of a problem.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:20:12 +0000

By: Blad_Rnr

Blad_Rnr — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:53:07 +0000

You are very correct.

I manage an all-Mac shop of about 50 Macs. We are all running Tiger. I alone have Leopard for testing purposes. I have seven new Macs shipping in January. Guess what? I have to start getting ready for Leopard whether I like it or not. Listen, I am a 20 year Mac veteran, and a ten year Mac IT veteran. I love my Macs and I love my job. But this being forced to move to a new OS would not have to happen in the Windows world. Fortunately, Adobe CS3 runs great in Leopard, as well as MS Office 2004 for Mac. If not, I would be looking on Ebay for “gently used” Macs as replacements that ran Tiger. Now some have said the new Macs will run Tiger, but that won’t last for long.

The innovation coming out of Cupertino for us Macs shops is and always has been, “Here it is. Love it or leave it.” That’s not a bad thing, IMHO. I embrace it. And the changes in Leopard (Time Machine) will be brilliant once we start deploying to more users. It’s just that the Mac future is/was being dictated much more aggressively than in Redmond. And if and when Apple gets really big in the Enterprise, it may have to slow down.

By: AJ

AJ — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:44:35 +0000

I do like Xcode – but I don’t know enough of the MSFT tools anymore to make a comment.

One of the things that keeps us competitive is not Xcode itself, but Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks.

By: Tom B

Tom B — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:39:04 +0000

The dirty little secret of IT is that Enterprise computing largely consists of MS-Office– little else. I don’t like MS Office. There are free things that are comparable (OpenOffice) and commercial offerings that are significantly superior (iWork). But the irony is, when I was actually using MS Office a lot, I liked the Mac version better.

Question to the author: I am not a developer, but since you have NeXTSTEP experience– do you like XCode? Did Apple keep it enough ahead of MSFT’s dev tools?