what is Apple planning for the enterprise?
Well it has been a preety interesting year for Apple: lots of new harware announcements and a significant operating system upgrade. Based on this year it looks like Apple is ready to capitalize on a rare opening in the Enterprise.
Let's look at the facts:
IBM Partnership
IBM is the darling of the enterprise and has a very successful services business. IBM has also made it clear they are lessening their dependancy on Microsoft desktops and increasing their use of *nix based operating systems on servers, workstations, and clients.
Panther
Panthers inprovements include a VPN client, file encryption, simplier networking in mixed environments, bundled x11 client, exchange support in mail, secure erase. Most of these additions are clearly aimed at business users.
Enterprise software development
Sybase and Oracle starting to port their apps to Macs
VATech cluster
Xserve
Rendezvous
Zeroconfiguration networking is not only great for schools and small business...but will open up a world of options in the enterprise
iChat AV and iSight
affordable videovonferencing, will a pro version be next?
Frantic software development pace
Apple has been moving in hyperspeed, and quick to adopt new technologies and solve problems
Enterprise sales team
Blaster worm and SoBig
Infoworld and eWeek's regular features and coverage of the Apple platform
Apple is a potentaially compelling solution with an end to end solution. As it stands Apple doesn't quite have much to sell to potential enterprise customers when it comes to hardware. Linux offers one key advantage to potential enterprise customers: it runs on current hardware...Apple has office and other mainstream Apps but Apple can't sell powerbooks and powermacs alone to business users.
Imagine if IBM can helpApple earn some large customers, a customer support contract bundling Apple hardware with IBM and Apple experts on hand to handle the transition, setup and support. Apple may not have all of the resources necessary to handle a super large corporate account yet, but IBM surely does...and with their UNix and Linux experience they would be easy to teach.
What do you think is on the horizon? What do you think apple needs to do to capitalize on the positive momentum and get new corporate customer's? How do you think APPle and IBM will capitalize on this new partnership? How do think Microsoft and the MacBU will take advantage of Apple in the office? What needs to happen in the ddevelopor community for Apple to be taken seriously by corporate IT departments? What is missing from the OS X platform to make this sucessful?
PS Although I am an ardent support of a g5 cube, minitower or xstation I do not want to go into another thread about g5 cubes! (But that is what I really want!)
Let's look at the facts:
IBM Partnership
IBM is the darling of the enterprise and has a very successful services business. IBM has also made it clear they are lessening their dependancy on Microsoft desktops and increasing their use of *nix based operating systems on servers, workstations, and clients.
Panther
Panthers inprovements include a VPN client, file encryption, simplier networking in mixed environments, bundled x11 client, exchange support in mail, secure erase. Most of these additions are clearly aimed at business users.
Enterprise software development
Sybase and Oracle starting to port their apps to Macs
VATech cluster
Xserve
Rendezvous
Zeroconfiguration networking is not only great for schools and small business...but will open up a world of options in the enterprise
iChat AV and iSight
affordable videovonferencing, will a pro version be next?
Frantic software development pace
Apple has been moving in hyperspeed, and quick to adopt new technologies and solve problems
Enterprise sales team
Blaster worm and SoBig
Infoworld and eWeek's regular features and coverage of the Apple platform
Apple is a potentaially compelling solution with an end to end solution. As it stands Apple doesn't quite have much to sell to potential enterprise customers when it comes to hardware. Linux offers one key advantage to potential enterprise customers: it runs on current hardware...Apple has office and other mainstream Apps but Apple can't sell powerbooks and powermacs alone to business users.
Imagine if IBM can helpApple earn some large customers, a customer support contract bundling Apple hardware with IBM and Apple experts on hand to handle the transition, setup and support. Apple may not have all of the resources necessary to handle a super large corporate account yet, but IBM surely does...and with their UNix and Linux experience they would be easy to teach.
What do you think is on the horizon? What do you think apple needs to do to capitalize on the positive momentum and get new corporate customer's? How do you think APPle and IBM will capitalize on this new partnership? How do think Microsoft and the MacBU will take advantage of Apple in the office? What needs to happen in the ddevelopor community for Apple to be taken seriously by corporate IT departments? What is missing from the OS X platform to make this sucessful?
PS Although I am an ardent support of a g5 cube, minitower or xstation I do not want to go into another thread about g5 cubes! (But that is what I really want!)
Comments
If Apple is gonna get serious about the enterprise then it must have a low cost, low maintenance, yet high performance client machine for the desktop. Such a machine must meet three criteria:
1. Small footprint
2. G5 based (64 bit will be THE selling point for business customers)
3. Compatible with existing VGA and DVI displays
Apple currently has no machine that does all three. Businesses will NEVER deploy iMacs or eMacs no matter how cheap they get or even if they get G5s, and the Power Macs are total overkill for the majority of enterprise users.
So, if it quacks like a Cube...
Single 2.0 90nm G5
Single upgradeable 100 GB Serial ATA drive
Radeon 9000 64MB in a standard, upgradeable AGP slot
Dual monitor support via DVI and AGP (VGA adapter included)
Combo drive
2 RAM slots, 512MB, 1GB or 2GB in pairs
No PCI
No extra drive bays
The pitch has got to be simple and cost effective deployment. Just take it out of the box, plug in the power, keyboard, mouse and your existing NON-APPLE CRT or flat panel display and you're done. It runs Office, mounts SAMBA shares, prints to anything, anywhere on the network and doesn't get viruses.
Apple could do this machine early next year for $999. Even less in large quantities or bundled with G5 Xserves.
If the Cube name is tainted, call it the bMac. That's actually better anyway. eMacs for education, iMacs for consumers, bMacs for the enterprise and Power Macs for creative professionals.
And we need an Oracle CLIENT. Larry Ellison is on the board, yet his programmers can't get around to making a simple SQL*Plus to work on Mac OS X? What's wrong with them?
Originally posted by cubist
bMac is good. On the rapid deployment, businesses need something like Ghost to rapidly blast images onto the machine. CCC could do in a pinch, but it's not image-based and it's not very fast.
And we need an Oracle CLIENT. Larry Ellison is on the board, yet his programmers can't get around to making a simple SQL*Plus to work on Mac OS X? What's wrong with them?
SQL*Plus is dead and will not even be included with 10g.
Use TORa, SQLGrinder, iSQL*Plus (Oracle's own web enabled client) or other SQL clients.
And no, Ellison is no longer on Apple's board.
Originally posted by jade
Panther
Panthers inprovements include a VPN client, file encryption, simplier networking in mixed environments, bundled x11 client, exchange support in mail, secure erase. Most of these additions are clearly aimed at business users.
but this is the only the beginning. apple needs to get these elements working 101% before businesses will accept it.
VPN client only works with certain VPN networks and not tothers. exchange support is flakey etc
but i think Q1 2004 when the new version of oracle comes out, and the mac version is announced will be a watershed...
bMac now!!!
Originally posted by jade
IBM Partnership!!!
... As it stands Apple doesn't quite have much to sell to potential enterprise customers when it comes to hardware... Imagine if IBM can helpApple earn some large customers... Apple may not have all of the resources necessary to handle a super large corporate account yet, but IBM surely does...and with their UNix and Linux experience they would be easy to teach.
What do you think is on the horizon? ...How do you think APPle and IBM will capitalize on this new partnership?
The idea of a Partnership!!! with IBM is overlooked by most Industry watchers. These guys have a plan, and Apple is part of it.
IBM is operating system agnostic, they offer the customer choice, and what better choice is there than OSX? Expect Apple to offer IBM blades and Blade Center chassis under their label, and expect to see IBM offer OSX server on their hardware.
It simply makes too much sense for Apple and IBM not to maximize each others strengths. What's to lose by either party?
The most valuable thing Apple has done to get into enterprise is to win those huge school contracts. You'd better believe that people outside education are watching the likes of Henrico and Maine with interest, and watching how well Apple handles them over time, and watching whether they'll be renewed, because those are enterprise rollouts in every significant respect.
OS X is a critical piece. It's a (fairly) Windows-compatible UNIX with roots in an OS (NeXTStep/OpenSTEP) that had (and still has) a foot in enterprise applications.
The FileMaker Solutions group is a critical piece. Apple now has a visible, in-house developer of vertical applications built on an Apple platform. AppleScript Studio and WebObjects and Java and Python (not as widely known, but crucial where it is used) are also part of this aspect of the strategy.
Xserve and Xserve RAID are crucial. A high-bandwidth 64-bit architecture is needed on the server end mostly for database work (which is huge in enterprise, obviously). A big database will eat all the RAM you can possibly throw at it and demand more.
I could be snarky and require Apple to ship a COBOL compiler, but I won't.
Given all this, and given that Apple is in a unique position to offer a more comprehensive vertical solution than any Windows OEM, I don't think monitors are going to be a deal-breaker in every case, or even in most cases. A transition to Apple necessarily means getting rid of a lot of machines - how many Apple monitors stuck around when enterprise threw the Mac out in 1995? VGA adapters weren't that hard to find.
Originally posted by Amorph
Given all this, and given that Apple is in a unique position to offer a more comprehensive vertical solution than any Windows OEM, I don't think monitors are going to be a deal-breaker in every case, or even in most cases. A transition to Apple necessarily means getting rid of a lot of machines - how many Apple monitors stuck around when enterprise threw the Mac out in 1995? VGA adapters weren't that hard to find.
Amorph, great post as always.
My emphasis on existing display compatibility was to highlight the complete non-suitability of the iMac and eMac lines for the enterprise. Corporate IT managers do NOT want their displays tied to their machines. Combining that basic fact with the obvious overkill of the Power Macs requires that Apple introduce a whole new machine if it's truly serious about this market.
BTW, glad you all liked bMac. Remember, you heard it here first.
Originally posted by Ensign Pulver
Amorph, great post as always.
My emphasis on existing display compatibility was to highlight the complete non-suitability of the iMac and eMac lines for the enterprise. Corporate IT managers do NOT want their displays tied to their machines.
I think time will tell.
The ergonomic advantage of the iMac's display is obvious, and impossible to replicate in a separate without lots of costly and unwieldy arms and booms. Ergonomics is a big deal in enterprise, because of all the time and productivity and money (billions of dollars annually) lost to RSI and eye problems and what-not. The recent emphasis on collaborative work, where two people share one computer, plays right into the iMac's design. They don't take up significant desk space or create a rat's nest underneath the desk.
While the built-in monitor is a definite disadvantage from a point of view of repairing a given machine, the workarounds aren't so bad. Since the machine is an all-in-one, you can just bring a replacement over in one hand, plunk it down, and carry the broken guy off to be repaired. Repair is an enterprise support issue - in a parallel push, Apple is working toward no worse than next-day turnaround on repairs by turning Apple Stores into authorized repair centers. Enterprise could buy something better.
Really, I don't see how Apple couldn't alter the iMac a bit to be more tool-friendly and offer a tool and parts kit to enterprise customers, as they do for Xserve. But even if they didn't do that, swapping in spares is the most efficient option in terms of getting people back to work. It would be easier to plunk an iMac down on my desk than it would be to replace the monitor, because of the cords threaded down to the machine under the desk.
So, no, I don't see the need for a new machine. Time will tell, certainly, but you have to consider that the iMac has advantages over traditional boxes as well.
If Apple is serious about corporations it must change one of its core values. Steve has to give the enterprise want it wants, not what it needs. Whether or not this is a good thing (assuming it happens) is another discussion all together.
Damn, still don't know how to post images.
Here's some shots on my .mac page.
Here's the original Japanese site.
Looks perfect to me! Can someone tell me how to link to the images directly?
Originally posted by JLL
SQL*Plus is dead and will not even be included with 10g.
Use TORa, SQLGrinder, iSQL*Plus (Oracle's own web enabled client) or other SQL clients.
And no, Ellison is no longer on Apple's board.
Whoa... I haven't looked at OTN in a while! Downloading! Thanks!
If I were Apple, I would go web-based, to make it cross-platform.
At the core it would need e-mail, calendar, meeting planner (shared calendar) and organization-wide address book (ldap).
A lot of people simply don't realize how entrenched Exchange is in organizations... it is the trojan-horse of Office.
If you upgrade the Exchange server, you must upgrade the client, which is located in guess where? Office.
Being web-based would make the Xserve the obvious platform to serve it off of. Apple is a hardware company, so selling more Xserve hardware would be the plan.
Your thoughts?
I'm currently working in an all Mac design shop. Mail, iCal, and Addressbook work reasonably well for these guys, but they need a little work to be "enterprise ready".
Mail needs to have shared folders. It might be possible to set this up with OS X Server and IMAP, but if it is then Apple needs to advertise this and make it "Apple simple".
iCal's sharing needs to be enhanced so that multiple people can update the same calendar. Even better add version control.
Addressbook needs to be able to access a shared addressbook (and not just LDAP, but all the contact info).
You should also be able to share Mail folders, calendars, and Addressbook groups via rendezvous, like iTunes.
Apple may indeed need to create a server package to make some of these features simple to setup, but they can start with open IMAP, LDAP and WebDAV implementations and integrate them, just like they've been doing with OS X.
And another thing: I'm sooooo tired of hearing about a "bMac". The eMac and iMac are nearly perfect for business. Apple just needs to make them cheaper, and the rumors are that they're working on it.
Originally posted by Ensign Pulver
Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that the iMac design is perfect for the enterprise, for RSD and ergonomic considerations alone. I didn't say IT managers shouldn't consider AIOs, just that they won't.
If Apple is serious about corporations it must change one of its core values. Steve has to give the enterprise want it wants, not what it needs. Whether or not this is a good thing (assuming it happens) is another discussion all together.
Well, we'll see about that.
In other words, Apple is not going to change one of its core values. The whole reason their machines have the appeal they do is that Apple tries to think about what people need - without that, what you have is a Dell in white plastic instead of black. Why not just get a Dell? Apple can take advantage of the fact that education is an enterprise market and concentrate their efforts there. When a commercial enterprise looks over and says, "you know, that's what we need," then Apple can work with them. (The fact that money is tight and companies are taking a more active interest in results-oriented IT plays to Apple's advantage here.) In the long term, I think this is a far more productive strategy for all concerned. Your way might help in the short term, but it might not, and either way, Apple will have compromised the very thing that makes them Apple.
Originally posted by Amorph
In other words, Apple is not going to change one of its core values. The whole reason their machines have the appeal they do is that Apple tries to think about what people need - without that, what you have is a Dell in white plastic instead of black. Why not just get a Dell?
Hey, we actually agree on this subject! I guess I was being a little too hardcore when I said "change core values".
On the contrary, that's exactly why I think a minimalist aluminum G5 Cube would be so perfect. They get some Apple style forced on them while still getting simple, cheap deployment and excellent ROI.
My whole argument boils down to the basic fact that IT managers (perhaps wrongly) REFUSE to consider AIOs. They also would NEVER (perhaps, also wrongly) deploy anything made with white plastic, no matter how attractive, fast or cheap it is. (I'm looking in your direction, Spankalee.) Since they're not going to drop $1800 on a bottom of the line Power Mac G5 with PCI-X slots and drive bays they don't need, Apple's only choice is to come out with a whole new machine.
Originally posted by Ensign Pulver
My whole argument boils down to the basic fact that IT managers (perhaps wrongly) REFUSE to consider AIOs.
Do they? I haven't seen any direct or even anecdotal eveidence of this. I think that right now IT managers (perhaps wrongly) REFUSE to consider Macs, and not because they only have AIO's and (slightly) expensive PowerMacs.
Just about every IT purchase I've seen has included a monitor for each CPU. Even when there are existing monitors around, so I don't think the "IT managers won't buy AIOs" argument really holds up.
The limiting factor right now is the acceptance of Macs (Mac OS) in general, not the hardware. It's not even the price of the hardware that's an issue as it's generally accepted that the TCO of Macs is less than Wintels.
If Apple came out with a "bMac", it might be mildy successful, but I don't think it would increase Apple enterprise presence, atleast based on the hardware itself. Of course the existance of a 'bMac' would mean that Apple was marketing more aggressivly to the enterprise market and that might have a positive effect.
Apple seems to be generally on the right path to be able to attack the ent. market. They need to gain a reputation of compatibility with other systems first. They've done a good job of this with the Xserve marketing. Extending this to Exchange compatibility will help a lot. After Apple is are no longer percieved as living in it's own world then they can show how they make critical business applications (email, messaging, calendaring, file sharing) easier.
Again, I really don't think hardware is the issue.
As far as IT aversion to AIOs go, I have only my own (fairly) extensive experience to go on. Every Win based company I've worked for or with (not to mention many schools) has cited the inability to repair or replace the display separately from the CPU as a supposed huge disadvantage of iMacs and now eMacs. Of course the Power Macs, especially with Apple's ADC flat-panels, were WAY to expensive to even consider. (I have a sick addiction to conversing with Win IT admins. They're like cultural and logical car wrecks. I can't look away.)
My girlfriend works for a big commercial real estate group that replaced every one of their PCs last year. AIOs (either Mac or PC) weren't even in the running. They got crappy iPaqs with Dell 17" LCDs. (The fact that they then proceeded to set all the displays to 1024 instead of the native 1280 proves they are true, clueless Windows users.)
I've never even heard of any of the hideous iMac knock-offs like the Gateway Profile being deployed in any real numbers at the enterprise level. Sure, this is all just my experience, YMMV. Anyone have any stories of AIO loving IT admins?
Originally posted by Ensign Pulver
...I have a sick addiction to conversing with Win IT admins. They're like cultural and logical car wrecks. I can't look away.
And your comments about their level of proficiency in installing their own Wintel systems has also been my experience. I am no Windows expert - heck I am not even a Mac expert compared with many people here on AI - but every recent time the IT people have done an install of a new computer for colleagues at work I have had to come over to fix some very basic problems with the machine. They even neglected to adjust the refresh rate and absolutely insisted to one of my colleagues that her screen was "supposed to look that way". I still can't get over it.