How to Integrate Macs into an Enterprise PC World Introductory eBook
How to Integrate Macs into an Enterprise PC World Introductory eBook July 30, 2010 Web: Share via link: Subscribe on YouTube: Find us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter: Share via retweet: thursby.com eBook Link youtube.com/thursbysoftware facebook.com/thursbysoftware twitter.com/thursbysoftware eBook Retweet Need a quick summary of this 7-page eBook? Click on the video link below. HOW TO INTEGRATE MACS INTO AN ENTERPRISE PC WORLD It’s about the users In May of this year, Apple announced that Mac sales were up 39% yearon-year and the market capitalization of Apple surpassed Microsoft for the first time. In July, Apple announced a 78% increase in quarterly profits. Just a decade earlier, Michael Dell had suggested that Apple should be wound up and sold! The commercial and media successes of the iPad, iPhone, iPod/iTunes and Apple stores have lifted iMac desktop and MacBook laptop consumer sales. This so-called ‘halo effect’ has raised user demand for Macs (and all things Apple) in the enterprise. Macs have long been the preferred tools in academia, advertising, marketing, video, music production and publishing, as well as web and software development. Many consultants and independent professionals use them because they emphasize productive workflows rather than struggling with updates, viruses, malware and freezes. Less known is their use to harden (http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/20/apple-army-hackers-tech-securitycx_ag_1221army.html) IT infrastructures by the US Army and others on the theory that homogeneous computing environments are inherently more vulnerable to cyber attack. Would be developers for the iPad and iPhone rapidly discover that the Mac is the development platform for all Apple devices. Users especially demand Macs for the creative applications that run best on them, from Apple’s Final Cut Pro, to Adobe’s Creative Suite, Avid for video and Microsoft for Office on Macs. The influential Wall Street Journal writer, Walt Mossberg, surmises, “Macs have their own advantages. Apple’s hardware is handsome and reliable, and, in my tests, Macs usually boot faster than Windows machines. Apple often scores highest on surveys of customer support, and the vast majority of malicious software, which is overwhelmingly designed to run on Windows, doesn’t affect Macs. Also, I consider Apple’s built-in software excellent.” Historically Macs have not played well in enterprise environments with OS 9 and X launching with almost no provision for connecting to Windows. Home or small businesses with mixed Macs and PCs Right out of the box, today’s Apple’s OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard, MacWindows connectivity should meet your integration needs in a home or small business environment where numbers of concurrent users are low, file sizes and throughputs are not high and infrastructure is relatively simple. You can run Microsoft Office and creative applications from Apple, Adobe and Avid locally. Integration can be as simple as checking boxes on Apple’s System Preferences, although very close attention needs to be paid to the support sites of specific application vendors since significant caveats exist around networked environments. © 2010 Thursby Software Page 2 of 7 HOW TO INTEGRATE MACS INTO AN ENTERPRISE PC WORLD Microsoft Exchange compatibility is built-in. Just about any web application that will run on a standard browser (not using Microsoft’s extensions) such as Firefox under Windows will run on a Mac. For Windows only applications, or heavily customized Office applications, Windows can be run virtually on Macs via tools from companies such as VMware or Parallels. This consumer-oriented market is the one catered to by nearly all Mac publications, books (there are several hundred listed on Amazon.com) and even by professional services lacking a background in the integration, support, security and scalability issues of large enterprises, schools and colleges. It is the market being addressed by the majority of web forums, sites and groups and even sometimes vendors with generalist UNIX expertise, unaware of issues specific to enterprise Mac-Windows integration. The enterprise context Apple’s Steve Jobs has revived with Apple products, in the modern era, what was once the dominant computer paradigm. Back in the 1960s and 70s, IBM provided mainframe hardware, software and services that typically ran seamlessly together – the so-called end-to-end or vertically integrated model, with the caveat that everything had to be IBM’s! Behind the scenes in many large companies such systems continue to run for certain specialized tasks like crunching a very large number of transactions. For many years, innovation happened first in the enterprise Data Center, or “glass house”, with consumer devices being relatively simple. Today, innovation occurs more and more in the consumer space from mobile computing, to running applications over the web, to storing backups online, raising considerably the bar of user expectations from enterprise IT. Over the last half-century, costs were driven out of the general enterprise IT hardware, to software, and then to services stack by breaking them all out via standardization and commoditization. One of the unintended consequences has been user dissatisfaction and business impacts due to potentially weak integration of the various stack elements. Integration issues such as performance, reliability, security, in-theory-one-size-fits-all solutions and an ecosystem of vendors for support can lead to reappearances of costs in terms of integration projects, help desks, audit and regulatory compliance issues and the risk of poor company branding if data losses occur. To combat these risks and provide seamless services to users, enterprise IT staffs have made considerable investments in: Windows infrastructure Server gold images Standards Processes © 2010 Thursby Software Page 3 of 7 HOW TO INTEGRATE MACS INTO AN ENTERPRISE PC WORLD Training Support Within the enterprise, managers look to fully leverage network volumes, with their replication, fault tolerance and backups, as well as controlling identity and access management for user workflows. Enterprise integration The key goal for integration of Macs into an enterprise PC world is managing Macs transparently - just like any other PC, reducing risk and preserving existing investments in infrastructure, server gold images, processes and training that typically represent millions of dollars and system-administratoryears of effort. Part of that transparency, simplicity and maintainability lies in avoiding the cost and disruption of additional Windows server software or OS X servers and changes to Active Directory schemas. Typical Mac-Windows enterprise integration requirements include: Full network volume support for Apple, Adobe, Avid and Microsoft Office apps, the very reason many enterprises have Macs in the workplace, or connected remotely. Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) for replicated, fault-tolerant access to geographically dispersed files. This is the standard for many enterprises and a key to true enterprise integration and scalability. Management of identity and access management (IAM) via Microsoft Active Directory (AD) / Group Policy Objects (GPO) or Apple Workgroup Manager (WGM). Depending on the growth and history of the enterprise, it may make more sense to manage IAM from the Mac side, or from the PC-side. As an example, creative workflows in advertizing and marketing might be adversely affected by ill-considered application of PC-side norms that better meet accounting and engineering needs. Apple out-of-the-box offers limited Active Directory integration but for a more complete, native solution with Mac WGM, it requires an OS X Server and uses an inelegant approach called the Magic Triangle (http://images.apple.com/business/solutions/it/docs/Best_Practices_Active_Di rectory.pdf). Tools to facilitate enterprise deployment for volume users since as numbers of Macs grow, managing keys and rollouts can become onerous In certain environments, military grade security provided by Common Access Cards is required (http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/laws/gc_1217616624097.shtm). © 2010 Thursby Software Page 4 of 7 HOW TO INTEGRATE MACS INTO AN ENTERPRISE PC WORLD Best practices and direct support from Mac-Windows specialists The challenge The challenge in meeting these enterprise requirements is the perception that Mac OS X does everything right out of the box at an enterprise level just as much as it does in a home or small business context. With time wasted, known bugs and limitations discovered, sites and support groups visited, the false perception ends in user and management frustration. At worst, this can mean that Macs are no longer tolerated in a workplace environment, or run as standalone enclaves, cut off from enterprise resources, standards and best practices. The reality is that there are functionality gaps in Snow Leopard, Leopard and prior versions of OS X as well as for third parties who rely knowingly, or unknowingly on it. © 2010 Thursby Software Page 5 of 7 HOW TO INTEGRATE MACS INTO AN ENTERPRISE PC WORLD The solution The solution for transparent, simple and intuitive Mac-Windows integration is to run Thursby Software that provides a fully supported, one-stop solution with direct access to Mac-Windows integration specialists. Thursby has over 50,000 Mac-Windows clients. Haven’t heard of us? Perhaps that is because, as our CTO says, “If you don’t even have to think about our software then it’s doing its job!” Our foundation software, DAVE (http://www.thursby.com/products/dave.html), is a client-based product supporting Microsoft DFS and offering true network volume support with none of the lost updates and corruption that can affect networked workflows with tools such as Adobe Creative Suite and Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Building on DAVE technology, client-based ADmitMac (http://www.thursby.com/products/admitmac.html) turns a Mac into a true Active Directory client, offering identity and access management from either the PC or the Mac side of the house and includes deployment tools for volume users. For those requiring military grade security, client-based ADmitMac PKI (http://thursby.com/products/pki.html) builds on ADmitMac technology to handle even the latest generation Government CAC and PIV cards. © 2010 Thursby Software Page 6 of 7 HOW TO INTEGRATE MACS INTO AN ENTERPRISE PC WORLD Versions One of the challenges of Macs in the Enterprise is that older machines may only be able to run older versions of OS X and newer machines, newer versions. Many organizations standardize on a particular OS X version and ‘gold image’ that has been thoroughly tested and meets their needs. Apple corporate is not known for sharing roadmap information and release dates, making waiting on a feature or bug fix in the ‘next release or future releases’ an uncertain gamble. Thursby stands behind its products with support and potential fixes in the current and previous OS X versions. Next steps Don’t just take our word for it, download a free, full function evaluation copy and try it for yourself, with direct access to support from Mac-Windows specialists at Thursby free evaluations (http://www.thursby.com/evaluations/). About Thursby Software Systems, Inc. Rather than simply participating in the Mac-Windows connectivity marketplace, Thursby created it, releasing a series of connectivity products ahead of other industry players and Apple itself. 1st SMB/CIFS implementation on the Mac - 1996 1st Active Directory (AD) implementation on the Mac - 2003 1st Complete Government PKI implementation on the Mac - 2006 Thursby today is the leader in commercial grade Mac-Windows connectivity with over 50,000 Mac-Windows clients and over a million software licenses sold since our founding in 1986. Worldwide clients range from creative artists, movie production and publishing, to the US government, education, healthcare and energy, to the Fortune 500. You can find out more at thursby.com Notes The company names used in this eBook are for identification purposes only. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2010 Thursby Software Page 7 of 7
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