Apple Is Making “Serious Inroads In The Enterprise”

John Martellaro for MacObserver write that the barriers are finally collapsing, as Mac is moving more deeply into the corporate sector. He notes an article written by Vin D’Amico at IndUS Business Journal. Martellaro writes, “In an exceptionally well balanced and thought out assessment of the situation, Mr. D’Amico wrote a prescription for a corporation that wants to test the waters with Apple’s enterprise offerings.”

He lists the key points as:
-Recognizing the standards compliance of Macs built on UNIX;
-Being award of Apple’s Xserve and Xsan storage area network;
-Mac’s ability to integrate into an Active Directory network
-Assessing the real TCO, which is not apparent from up front pricing since Apple typically focuses on high performance and valued added configurations;
-The ability of Macs to run Windows and Windows software natively or in virtualization.

“Some barriers remain, however,” D’Amico states. “Support for legacy applications, reliance on a single source, and the effort to introduce a second platform pose ongoing challenges.” Martellaro points out that Apple offers in-person visits from an Apple account executive and his support engineer, who will work to provide a much better understanding of Apple solutions.

D’Amico writes, “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.” Those college students may well be able to turn the tide, since their years of experience working on Macs would allow them the ability to demonstrate its strengths within the corporate sector. Then, of course, there is the issue of security. D’Amico gives Apple the gold star in that area. “Macs are generally more stable and virus-resistant than Windows. They are easier to use and built on open standards. Maybe it is time to test the barriers to Mac adoption in your company,” Mr. D’Amico advised.