Business takes a shine to Apple

Computerworld - So many Apple products; so many places to find them. Once merely the darling of the art department, now Macs are infiltrating financial departments and factory floors. This, according to a new Learn-Fast Guide, from the editors at Computerworld, designed to get you ready for a Mac attack in the workplace.

"The Mac attraction is easy to understand," says Computerworld's Robert L. Mitchell, who wrote the recent article, "The Time May Be Right." IT executives are showing more interest in the Mac because of its well-known ease of use, but also because of trends, such as virtualization and migrations to Web-based applications, that are freeing the desktop from a Windows monopoly.

But it's not only the desktop operating system that has companies considering Apple. As Computerworld editor Julia King details in her two-part story, Auto Warehousing Co. -- the largest full-service auto processing company in North America -- replaced the hardware for its data storage and Web operations with Apple Xserve RAID machines.

Although AWC will keep Microsoft's SQL Server as the back end of its Vehicle Inventory Processing System (VIPS), it will transition to Macs on the front end as the client software is rewritten in Java. In the interim, the company will run the VIPS client on Macs using Parallels, a virtualization system that lets Windows applications run on Macs. Dale Frantz, CIO at AWC, says, "Windows on my Mac runs faster than any PC I've ever seen. It's blazingly fast. One of the main things that stunned me is just how well the Mac hardware runs Windows."

AWC's rollout was slowed by cost concerns, voiced by more than the usual bean counters. Employees wondered if this was a high-priced project that would eat into salaries or other benefits. Customers wondered if it would result in higher prices. "I didn't see this coming at all," Frantz admits.

Frantz demonstrated VIPS to the shop employees using a Mac with a 20-in. screen, which is three to four inches larger than the PC screens they'd be using. He showed off the remote control features that allow a tech person to fix a problem with a machine on the shop floor from a distant location. "That was a real 'wow' factor," Frantz says.

Between its simpler licensing model -- by comparison with Microsoft -- and the inclusion of essential software with the hardware purchase, AWC expects this move to save money. "With Apple, the e-mail client is included on all Macs and on the iPhone, with no additional licensing of any kind," Frantz says. At the end of the day, those savings can persuade staff, customers and the finance department to give Macs a try.

Speaking of the iPhone, Computerworld contributor Ryan Faas offers details on activation, configuration and use of the iPhone for business. Activation is through iTunes, but configuration is not dependent on iTunes for user access to e-mail, the Web, calendars and address lists.

In some environments, the OS X iPhone Configuration Utility will allow centralized control. In an Exchange environment, ActiveSync works to pull down new e-mails, calendar events and personal contacts. ActiveSync also provides access from the iPhone to the company's Global Address List.

In Part 2 of his article "The iPhone Goes to Work," Faas details passcode policies, remote wipe abilities and user management. He also describes the limitations and common problems companies should keep in mind before an iPhone deployment, which, he says, "can be a rather picky device when it comes to working with Exchange."

The new Learn-Fast Guide, "An Apple for Your Enterprise," is available as a PDF from the Reports section at Computerworld.com.

Read more about operating systems in Computerworld's Operating Systems Knowledge Center.