Apple in the enterprise: Inevitable, still not easy

Eighteen months ago, Serena Software Inc. began exploring the feasibility of supporting Apple MacBooks as an option for its users, most of whom are developers. It was interested in lowering its support costs and increasing satisfaction among employees who used Macs at home, including the CEO.

Today, half of Serena's workers opt for MacBooks over Lenovo laptop PCs when they're hired or due for a hardware refresh, bringing the number of Apple users to about 100 out of 800 globally, according to Ron Brister, senior manager of worldwide IT operations at the Redwood City, Calif.-based maker of application development tools. Users like having a choice, and the number of support calls has declined.

"Gone are the days when IT dictates how people get their jobs done," says Brister. There have been no problems when it comes to interoperability with Serena's Windows-based data center. And thanks to a discount from Apple Inc., the MacBooks cost roughly the same as Lenovo ThinkPad T61 machines, according to Brister.

Anthony DeCanti, vice president for technology at Werner Enterprises Inc., a freight transportation company in Omaha, has a different story to tell. Five years ago, he brought Macs into the company to give users an alternative to Windows. But over the past two years, DeCanti has seen a steady decline in Apple's enterprise efforts.

"Two years ago, I would have been fired up and telling you this thing has wheels," he says. "But I really feel like Apple has taken its eye off the ball for acceptance into the enterprise and put its efforts into the iPhone. From a shareholder's perspective, maybe that's a great idea, but from an enterprise standpoint, I really feel let down."

Thanks to the enthusiasm it has generated in the consumer market and the enterprise-friendly features it has added to the Mac and the iPhone, Apple will likely make inroads into more corporate environments, but gaining acceptance may not be easy. Even Mac veterans say that Apple doesn't always act like other technology partners and that mixing Macs into the enterprise requires time and research.

DeCanti lauds the Mac's "incredible elegance, great operating system and incredible graphics." However, his frustrations include poor Active Directory integration, Apple's exit from the storage hardware market and a lack of improvements in Apple's Safari browser.

Worse, whereas he used to get access to Apple engineers and insights into product road maps through annual meetings and executive briefings, that has ended, he says. As a result, DeCanti has decided to freeze Mac purchases while continuing to support the Apple machines Werner already has, including 250 desktops and 14 servers used for route optimization.

Is It, or Isn't It?

For years, religious wars have been waged over whether Apple is a full-fledged enterprise citizen. Recently, the pro-Apple argument has grown more compelling.

"There are fewer and fewer reasons not to choose Apple for the enterprise, as prices are competitive, the technology integrates well with most enterprise infrastructures, and there are very few things you can't do on the Mac, including running Windows," says Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at research firm Jupitermedia Corp. in Darien, Conn., and a Computerworld columnist. "It's harder to argue against keeping technology out when it does what people need it to do."

For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld. Story copyright Computerworld, Inc.