Whoa, It's Enterprise Mac
News Brief. Who says there's no place for Macs in enterprises? |
Certainly not Atempo, Centrify, Group Logic, LANrev and Parallels, which today formally launched the Enterprise Desktop Alliance. But don't misunderstand the name to mean Windows in the enterprise. The group is all about the Mac.
Together, the companies will focus on five solution areas:
- Enterprise data protection
- Identity and access management
- File and print services
- Systems life-cycle management
- Virtualization
This marketing sentence from the group's Web site captures its goals: "By leveraging the suite of capabilities that EDA solutions offer, an enterprise can easily integrate Macs and achieve the same level of control, security, policy compliance and services that they currently have with their Windows platforms."
Is there a place for Macs in the enterprise? D'oh, why would iPhone 2.0 support Microsoft Exchange if there wasn't a place? Enterprises asked for Exchange support, and Apple will deliver.
But managing iPhone in the enterprise isn't the same as integrating Mac desktops, laptops or servers into infrastructure dominated by Windows. And these five companies are all very infrastructure-oriented in their solutions.
What many enterprises will really need is advice. To deploy Vista, most North American businesses must first upgrade hardware. And if they're making big hardware or software purchases anyway, it's good time to seriously explore alternatives—do the broader TCO evaluation. Is Mac OS X an alternative they should consider?
What about Mac hardware? MacBook Air and Pro are slick portables, and I know from IT manager interviews that employees do ask for the portables. Mmm, isn't IBM offering them now? Broader Mac enterprise evangelism is sorely needed. Maybe the EDA can provide some.
Comments (2)
Joe, let's not forget that Apple offers IT Professionals a certification program for just these skills.
http://training.apple.com/certification/acsa
I believe that holders of this cert will become much sought after with those of us who perform these integrations.
IT support people love getting certs as a way to demonstrate their skills. As more IT pros are exposed to the speed, stability, and sophistication that OS X provides (and what a bloated, byzantine mess Windows has slowly become), expect to see the continuing increase of Mac adoption into the enterprise.
Posted by dev | July 2, 2008 2:19 PM
Not as tough to find IT personnel for Apple computers now that Mac OS is Unix.
Posted by Partners in Grime | July 2, 2008 11:02 PM