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Is Apple Ready for a Trek on the Enterprise?
With the launch of their newest operating system, Snow Leopard, Apple is doing something they’ve never done well before – supporting Microsoft Exchange right from the OS. Is Apple getting set to boldly go where Microsoft has gone before? Are they poised to explore strange new markets to seek out new life and new enterprise-level business?
Apple’s iPhone is already making limited headway into that territory, but the desktop and server markets are the real challenges facing Apple if they want to take on the big boy in business – Microsoft.
With its support of Intel-based systems, directory services, clustering, and other important types of enterprise support, some analysts think Apple is ready to make a real assault on enterprise level business. Apple already offers server, storage, and desktop solutions, so what’s been stopping Apple from gaining much headway?
The biggest worry for enterprise business is how well Apple’s equipment integrates into current network infrastructure. Companies have spent thousands (sometimes millions) of dollars on Microsoft and Novell based systems and aren’t ready to just toss it all out and start over. Apple will need to fit into current networks if it has any hope of surviving a trek on the enterprise.
According to Apple’s website, their new operating system is built to seamlessly integrate into Microsoft Windows based networks. Snow Leopard doesn’t launch until September, but Alan Ellis, Alliance Technologies’ resident Apple expert, said that although Apple has made some strides into the enterprise market, the company still doesn’t have a “killer app” that necessitates a switch from Microsoft-based systems.
Aside from workstations, Alan says, he hasn’t seen many local companies adopt Apple’s enterprise systems. “If you want a mail system, you don’t go with a product that does something like Microsoft Exchange, you just pick Microsoft Exchange.”
Apple is notoriously secretive about their developing projects, so who knows what’s being cooked up at their headquarters in Cupertino, California. But as of now, one thing seems sure: they need a killer app to ascend to the next level.
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