Macs and Mac OS X are becoming more widely-used among U.S. businesses, a recent Yankee Group survey explains.

Yankee Group has released the results of its independent web-based survey, and the results suggest "significant, steady and sustained adoption of Mac and OS X Leopard in the enterprise," the researchers said. According to the survey of 700 global IT administrators and C-level executives, approximately 80 percent of the businesses have installed Macintoshes and the OS X operating system in their network.

"As the consumerization of the enterprise continues and as ubiquitous connectivity takes hold, empowering employees with the tools that help facilitate Anywhere connectivity becomes key," said Laura DiDio, research fellow, Yankee Group. "Apple's strong marks in security, features, performance, usability and reliability are indicative of the qualities customers' value when purchasing hardware and operating system software."

According to the report, nearly one-quarter of the survey respondents have a significant number of Macs installed. The report also enumerates the technical and business benefits of using Macs.