Mac presence in the IT world
For years, Apple has had increasing competition from many PC manufactures in the Windows, Linux and open source markets for IT dominance. As I peruse other fields of computing, I see Windows 2000�s stronghold on the market of wireless networking data services, TCP/IP networking and more and when I approach the idea of Mac OS X Server and Xserve systems, it is continually shot down by many established firms. The reason being is Apple was known for the single user Mac OS 8 back in the day when they original released OS server and even with OS 9, the lack of protected memory and familiar Windows server titles created issues for firms even contemplating a Macintosh as a system to render images, transport data, handle VOIP data calls or act as a file sharing server.
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Of course, the original OS X server based on �Copland� (OS 8) was a piece of crap to be honest with you and if you look back to the original G4 server that cost thousands, the users and groups permissions and built in mail and FTP services was great but the power was lacking for a dive into corporate level computing. OS X server of today is a strong, robust system based on UNIX and FreeBSD and thus making this �the most popular version of UNIX�, stated Steve Jobs during a 2002 keynote speech. The power to boot into a single user mode of FreeBSD then logout and get the same power from the GUI is remarkable for Linux geeks and windows server users.
Fast-forward to today and Apple provides a line of server products. One being Xserve, with dual G5s, RAID storage, ECC DDR ram and a slew of I/O making it the most powerful 1U server on the market (a line from Apple�s press release but they said it best). The next being Xserve RAID which holds terabytes of storage and is certified to work with Windows, Red Hat Linux and other flavors of Linux as a RAID storage system and costs dollars less per gigabyte than the competition. The final piece of the puzzle is the software. You can run any flavor of PowerPC Linux on these servers and you can also boot into OS X server 10.4 and run Adobe CS2, MS Office or other client level apps at the same speed as your desktop. You are paying for the services and group management included in the server version of Mac OS X without sacrificing the ability to run OS X client applications
Mac OS X Server is identical to OS client with the above added and a slew of other features to make this system work in the IT world as a server, of course. Don�t forget, there are tons of Mac applications to enhance this beast but you can also choose from many of the Open Source applications that run from the command line such as Apache, FTP, remote login and mail servers or just custom config the network directory with all users and their privileges and, via a control panel, turn on the items I listed. The great thing about these servers is their size, storage, power and the fact that your Mac guy can use it by day and your Linux server monkey can administrate it at night. You can change permissions and groups via GUI or command line, that�s up to you.
Let�s not forget about Apple�s Xsan software. Xsan is file system software marketed to large corporate offices, movie houses and sometimes-audio production houses. A SAN is a network equipped to handle tons of data, in and out, from multiple users at the same time and takes advantage of fiber channel cabling to help the speed. Xsan installs on an Xserve or G5 running OS X Server 10.4 and works with Xserve RAID as well. If you turn on file sharing on your Mac and assign a shared folder, then give your friends on iChat the afp://xxx.xx.xxx.xx link and a login to download that 50-megabyte file you have. Even if you have unlimited upload, 50 users are going to cause problems for the upload because your hard drives are constantly reading various aspects of the file for each user to download. Xsan resolves the issue in ways I don�t know of; it just works.
The only thing to do is get IT �buyers� familiar with the new face of Apple but the iPod is not helping at all. IT Pros know of Mac but those with the checkbooks don�t and they ask why the same company making music players for their kid can get away with producing a server that can fit their needs? It�s the plain truth but the power is out there and getting one large company like Cisco to approve Macs and release its networking software and manuals to work with Macs then the issue will no longer be. Either way, things are always looking up for the fruit sponsored company but more each day I dive into IT, and the more often I see Macs put down as reliable business machines. I have two coworkers that say Apple and OS x are solid partners and they may buy one soon for the house but when I ask about using a Mac as a server, it�s a laughing stock one can never live down. We cross our fingers and await the day companies like Cisco, Novell and others put Mac as a prominent part of their product line support.
