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New Apple IT Pro Section

aqsalter writes "Apple has finally created a new section for information from an IT Professionals viewpoint, with articles about all the good stuff. Previously Apple shied away from having any obvious IT focus, but it seems Apple are acknowledging their influence in the IT sphere, with two high-profile HPC clusters and enterprise class tools for managing open source technologies."

16 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. About time! by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is really long overdue. Apple has been an force for innovation in the desktop market since its inception, but they've never been taken all that seriously in the enterprise-class server market until recently. This shows that Apple really does want to be taken seriously.

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  2. If you have a hammer ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    every problem is a nail.

    Historically, Apple had its own operating system(s) developed in-house. Creating enterprise systems would have been a huge extra burden for them. Now, their os is basically _nix. Existing enterprise systems can be easily integrated with Apple's stuff.

    Bottom line: Apple can more easily do this now and so they are doing it.

  3. But will they be less secritive? by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful
    While I admit Apple makes quality products and IT could really use systems of that quality. But the primary problems preventing costomers to switch to Apple are the following...
    1. Vendor Lock in: When you switch to Apple for an IT strategy you will be stuck with it. And switching to an other platform is expensive. Sure right now Apple is making good quality products but down the line some other platform may exceed the quality in a large scale. Much like the Macs of the Early to Mid 90s where the Classic OS while once was top of the line started to be come antiquated, and just couldn't adapt to today needs weel. You buy the Apple Computer most likely you will be using OS X (Yea Yea you can use Linux but there is a lot of stuff not proven to work on PPC), so in the future when Apple sucks again you will be faced with a daunting upgrade task. This is the reason why Microsoft is so big, and the reason why Linux is so strong. With Windows and Linux you can buy whatever hardware and still keep the same software, reducing the risk of needing a major upgrade. With apple you are stuck with apple.
    2. Only Apple knows what the future holds:Apple loves to make the big press release and get all the people drooling at their new product. Companies want to be able to plan for things usually a year in advance. So if there is going to be a 5 ghz G5 coming out within a year or so they want to know that so they can budget the upgrade or wait an other year.
    3. Short life cycles: Wow those G4 Powermacs didn't last long. And when their supplies run out that is the end of them other then buying them used on ebay. Some companies may not need to have the best of the best. They often want to extend there system life to 4-10 years between upgrades. We need to be able to get parts for these system when they break, and not just extra harddrive spare Processors, motherboards, video cards. Basically all the stuff to make a Mac by itself.

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    1. Re:But will they be less secritive? by njfuzzy · · Score: 4, Insightful
      G4 PowerMacs didn't last long?!

      They went from 350 MHz in 1999, to dual 1.42 in 2003. Honestly, most Mac users think that was too long, not too short.

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    2. Re:But will they be less secritive? by sootman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Vendor Lock in: When you switch to Apple for an IT strategy you will be stuck with it."

      How is this different from *anyone* else? You think my company can easily migrate away from our combination of AD, Notes, Outlook, and EMC? At least Apple's products are, for the most part, based on open-source products, so you could go from OS X to any other *nix pretty easily. Apple may be no better than anyone else, but they're certainly no worse. To claim otherwise is absurd.

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    3. Re:But will they be less secritive? by alc6379 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      That's not what is meant by short life cycles. I've got a (circa 1989) Mac IIci with a 40mhz 68040 processor, 48MB RAM, and a 2GB hard drive. It's chugging along happily; does that mean it's got a really, really long life cycle?

      No.

      Long life cycles mean that there will be parts and support available from the OEM. I don't want to buy an expensive server and find out that next year I won't be able to replace a motherboard/cpu on it because the new G6 is out, and they don't make the G5's anymore.

      The actual life of a system can far extend the life cycle of a machine. I could well go on for another 5+ years with my 15 year old IIci, but that's not to say I can go to Apple for a motherboard replacement in 2010 when the thing finally dies on me.

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    4. Re:But will they be less secritive? by droleary · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Vendor Lock in: When you switch to Apple for an IT strategy you will be stuck with it. And switching to an other platform is expensive.

      How is this less true for any other platform? It's not like Linux has dismantled the MS monopoly overnight, and it's not like Linux is cheap enough (despite being free) to have people defecting in droves.

      With Windows and Linux you can buy whatever hardware and still keep the same software, reducing the risk of needing a major upgrade. With apple you are stuck with apple.

      Complete BS. You can only use the hardware your OS supports. Buying a USB+Bluetooth motherboard doesn't magically make your PS/2+serial compiled kernel work with it. You're only "stuck" by your limits of migration planning.

      Companies want to be able to plan for things usually a year in advance. So if there is going to be a 5 ghz G5 coming out within a year or so they want to know that so they can budget the upgrade or wait an other year.

      More rubbish. Please point out all the other companies out there that are decimating their sales by announcing things they won't be shipping for 3 quarters. Hint: there are none. Unlike you, they all learned the Osborne lesson. You'll get roadmaps, but Apple's "progression" roadmap exists, too, and isn't too hard to puzzle out. What they don't give you is an "innovation" roadmap, partly because they're one of the only companies that does major innovation on the desktop, and partly because pre-announcing leads to expectations that might not be so interesting by the time they ship. I mean, before they announced Spotlight I hadn't heard about anyone doing desktop search, and now it seems like everyone and their mother are trying to sew up a market niche before Tiger ships. But, regardless, a smart company makes their IT/IS plans based on what is shipping now, not on what might be shipping next year.

      Short life cycles: Wow those G4 Powermacs didn't last long.

      They didn't? I've had mine for over 4 years (wasn't one of the first PowerMacs, either, but one of the first duals), and it's still running fine today.

      And when their supplies run out that is the end of them other then buying them used on ebay. Some companies may not need to have the best of the best.

      Again, this differs from other companies how? Is Dell somehow rushing to ship orders of 486 systems? If you don't need the best Apple offers, get an eMac or an iBook.

      We need to be able to get parts for these system when they break, and not just extra harddrive spare Processors, motherboards, video cards. Basically all the stuff to make a Mac by itself.

      Uh, so get them. Are you saying Apple somehow has special resistors and capacitors made just for their Macs? Are you saying your company already regularly does, but somehow doesn't know how to get parts for, in-house component level repair on old PCs? How exactly does it make sense to pay a $50000 salary to replace $.10 parts on a machine worth $100 that could be replaced/upgraded for just $400 more?

  4. Re:Why does everybody love Apply for HPC? by TheKidWho · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Time = Money and the Apple solution saves you a LOT of time.

  5. Re:One of the things that are desperately needed by atomico · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Let's analyze some well-known monopolies.

    Microsoft = communism? Yes, sure. But, going back in time to other famous monopolies...

    Rockefeller's Standard Oil = communism

    Thanks a lot for opening my eyes!

  6. Catastrophe Might Wake Up IT. by Spencerian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Die-hard views in IT about Apple products may change, as did many ways we do things post-September 11, when (not if) a major computer security catastrophe occurs which could render many Windows operating systems inoperable. It's bound to happen--the laws of chaos and Murphy's Law dictate that something with order will be occasionally paired with disorder.

    IT hasn't had that wake-up call yet. History has shown that lack of diversification leads to fatal results. Having only one way of doing things, or in this case, only one choice in handling services, causes a backlash when elements of the systems are put to test.

    I've been an IT professional specializing in Apple products for over 12 years now. Despite the advances (administratively and competitively) that Apple and other companies have done in providing alternatives that work as well or better than the mainstream products, many IT pros still have NO FSCKING CLUE about the alternatives. They aren't TRAINED to think about alternatives, but only to do what they can with what they have.

    They may be a time where one of the many serious vulnerabilties found in Windows is fully and dangerously exploited, leading to failures of various sorts throughout the country and the world. Data is lost. Networks paralyzed. And all through such a time, computers running operating systems that are much more resistant or immune to these issues will aid in keeping our businesses working despite ourselves and our industry's lack of vision.

    It was a lack of imagination that led to the some of the world's notable disasters like the Titanic, the recent tsunamis, the Apollo 1, Shuttle Challenger and Columbia tragedies, the Macerena and Anna Nicole Smith. Someone in the IT world has to wake up and see that putting all the eggs in a basket may be cheaper, but that it is still one basket.

    I try to educate and never preach about the use and capabilities of Apple products, and I'm sure others try with Linux and other operating systems. I hope a site like this, sanctioned by Apple itself, adds a bit more professionalism to the mix of offerings.

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  7. Re:Nice :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Great idea! Cause there's nothing IT admins love more than being told how to do their job!

    Maybe they don't love being told how to do their jobs, but they sure as hell love creating job security by standardizing us all on machines that require near constant attention.

    I love when our IT guys try to tell us things like "Macs can't network", "Macs can't use the internet", and my personal favorite... "Apple is going out of business".

    Maybe instead of being told how to do their jobs, they should take it upon themselves to learn how to do their jobs.

  8. Shame by (shea48) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have supported Apple products for years and have always had problems with the quality and amount of documentation Apple creates. Just for curiosity I went to the new section http://www.apple.com/itpro/ and clicked on their featured article "Integrating MacOSX and Active Directory." This page is a sales pitch. It clearly explains that OS X is capable of authenticating to AD, but offers no advice on how to set up that authentication. Next to this sales pitch are several links to the websites of enthusiast and Apple employees who have developed documentation for Apple products and features in their personal time. I think it is shameful that Apple has to link to enthusiast sites for concise documentation of their products. Apple has never done a good job of creating useful documentation. To defend Apple, the do provide a link to their 190 page PDF detailing Open Directory and it is required reading for true professionals. But for questions regarding specific issues or general questions, it can be amazingly difficult to find the information you need. I have become accustom to searching independent Mac resources before I turn to Apple for information. Hopefully, this will change with the new IT Pro focus. Shea

    1. Re:Shame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Definately Apple falls even behind Linux for proper documentation.

      I was trying to develop a simple applescript application so that my users could click on that and have shares mounted automaticly. This was needed because the IT folks were moving around servers so I needed a easy and quick (and temporary) way to have it so that users can log into their network shares quickly.

      It was a most painfull experiance. There were several versions of applescript. Many of the commands were legacy and obsolete and left over from older versions. There was much duplicate commands and commands that have similar names between different versions but have different purpose... etc etc.

      plus on top of that many pre-made 3rd party scripts were in "executable" mode so that you couldn't see the source code and so you couldn't learn from examples!!!

      Nasty stuff, buy the time I figured it out the need was gone and I was digusted.

      Probably 75% of people here that praise Apple never actually had to work with their OSes. Hell most of them probably haven't touched a Mac since gradeschool.

      So eager to sing the praises of OS X like it's god gift to computing. It's NOT THAT GOOD.

      It's fine OS. I am typing this out right now on a Ibook... but it's Ubuntu installed on a IBook and I dual boot OS X.

      It's great. It serves a good place as a desktop OS for places that are unsuitable for Linux, but just understand that your dealing with a closed source OS based on a open source code and they have the same attitudes and corporate culture that they've always had with OS 9 and previous OSes.

      It's good, definately, but unless you actually have used it don't think that it's so great until you learn WHY it's good, first hand. And why it's not so good.

  9. Re:One of the things that are desperately needed by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "Anyone who challenges any monopoly is a kind of a hero in my book"

    Within the Apple enclave, there is even less "freedom" than in the Microsoft world. Using the "communism" analogy, what you are doing is cheering on North Korea as compared to China.

    There is much more of a "you must use this hardware to run this software!" thing going on. You can also check with the PlayFair folks about Apple's tendencies. If you want "Competition = free market = you choose.", look to the Linux world. They bend over backwards for such "freedom": interopability, hardware flexibility, and open standards, and user participation in major developments. You don't have everything being handed down from a "Politburo" like you do with Apple and Microsoft.

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  10. Re:please stop doing this... by anothy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    you're asserting something to be true which is far from universally accepted. folks speaking British English treat collective entities as collections of individual elements, and therefore plural. this mode of speaking is more consistent. take, for example, the hypothetical example (spoken from the point of view of a FooCo representative):
    American:
    FooCo is going to enter market blah. We think we can make money there.
    British:
    FooCo are going to enter market blah. We think we can make money there.
    note that the American English version changes tense half way through, which marks a significant inconsistency. the British version has inconsistencies as well, but it's more consistent than the American version.

    perhaps it's a good time to note that there are more British English speakers in the world than American English (thanks mostly to India and China). also, psychologically, i prefer the focus on the entity being a collection of individuals rather than a single entity.

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  11. Re:One of the things that are desperately needed by thatguywhoiam · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Within the Apple enclave, there is even less "freedom" than in the Microsoft world. Using the "communism" analogy, what you are doing is cheering on North Korea as compared to China.

    That's a pretty funny analogy.

    And apt, too! Apple is just like a North Korea, except that they have fair trade (open source kernal), human rights (well-designed consistent UI), a market economy (PCI, AGP, USB, SATA, IEEE 1392, GigE), a free press (TCP/IP, OpenTalk/ZeroConf, Apache, Jabber, Kerberos, SSL).... but other than that exactly like North Korea, yes.

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