Macs in business: Chagrin and bear it

Macs have always been perceived as consumer computers, if only because they are easier to use than Windows PCs (by almost all accounts). A few years ago, around the time the upright all-in-one white LCD iMac came out and perhaps due to some extent to the iPod 'halo effect', Apple designed computers started being seen as cool and some companies - even if otherwise wholly PC based - might have an iMac on the front desk, for appearance sake.

Companies that were Windows (or otherwise) based but that had creative departments often put a few Macs in there, following the now hackneyed line that 'Macs are good for creatives....'

They're good for creatives, yes. Because Macs are good.

But then executives started telling their IT departments they wanted Mac laptops instead of PCs. Maybe this was for sound reasons, maybe it was also image driven. These demands may have caused chagrin in some sectors, but you know how it goes. The boss wants a Mac, so (cha)grin and bear it.

I have said this before - there can be incredible resistance by IT staff to bringing Macs into non-Mac environments. This is partly stress and overwork making people reluctant to take on more load, which is understandable, but Macs are actually pretty easy to integrate into many networks because they support many existing networking protocols. There can be laziness pure and simple, maybe, although most IT people I meet seem to be running around like flies with blue you-know-whatsits. Often it's just that the systems are running fine and the knowledge around these established systems runs deep, so why rock the boat?

At the worst, there can be an element of anti-Mac prejudice.

InfoWorld has also published an article on how to do this, by the way.

Despite any (or all) of those factors mentioned above, Macs have been rising inexorably in business. InfoWorld (hardly a Mac or Apple focused publication) reported on a mid-2008 Yankee Group survey of 750 senior IT executives which found nearly 80 per cent had Macs in their organisations.

The Yankee Group figure from 2006 was just 47 per cent. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed in '08 had 30 or more Macs. Reasons given were mostly about Mac usability features, including Safari browsing, iChat videoconferencing, FileVault encryption, Back To My Mac remote control, Spotlight search and automated Time Machine backups.

Software engineering consultancy Okori Group CEO Brian Fox reckons Mac popularity comes from its consistency and versatility. Fox said "Apple's two platforms - server and desktop - are homogeneous. The desktop I get on the server is the same one I get on the client. For servers, the Mac is a true crossover system: real Unix with all its tools and scripting, plus the built-in management GUI for less-sophisticated administrators."

Okori uses Mac servers to host video streams. Its users manage hosted services with a click of a mouse, while the company's developers use the heavy-duty command line tools in the Unix system that underpins OS X.

Smaller businesses are using Macs for its cloud-based applications - especially when the iPhone (or even iPod touch) gets involved. This means projects can be managed via Mail, Address Book and into iCal, then all synchronising wirelessly with the conversant apps on users' iPhones.

Over here, Imagetext Systems regularly puts in and maintains mixed Mac and PC environments. Darius Mistry of Imagetext likes to talk about 'return on investments' and pointed me at an article published in August last year by Cio in the US.

Called Eight Financial Reasons Why You Should Use Mac OS, it begins "The advent of Vista and Mac OS X, along with the ascension of Linux, add new dimensions to a long-time controversy. Now more than ever before, the Mac OS is the most cost effective operating system of all."

It also links to an article called Seven Reasons to Think Twice About Macs in the Enterprise, by the way.

Another perhaps strange phenomenon is that some companies run their Windows-only networks on Apple Xserve boxes. I've seen this in New Zealand, too. The Infoworld article mentions users liking "Apple's excellent hardware quality reputation and its versatility as a virtualisation platform."

It cites Bill Earlywine, the IT manager at Video Product Group, who says "We use a Mac server to manage both Windows and Mac users via Mac OS X SMB and Open Directory authentication infrastructure." VPG uses Apple's server management suite for server monitoring and administration.

Apple is listening to the point of running free new seminars around the US. Entitled 'Your business on a Mac. A better bottom line,' the three-and-a-half-hour seminars start this week.

Intended to for business owners considering Macs, as well as existing Mac users hoping to use a Mac in an existing Windows environment. The seminar covers the basics of Mac OS X, connecting to existing networks (including Windows-based workgroups), basic networking and file sharing, plus using iWork and iLife for business purposes (a topic I have presented on myself, here in Auckland).

A factor that makes Macs much more attractive to developers is virtualisation - the fact you can use one machine - a Mac, naturally - to develop and test in Windows and Mac OS X.

Deny it as much as you like, the Mac has made inroads into territories it was conspicuously absent from for decades.

- Mark Webster mac.nz