They ’re coming . Gleaming all - in - one , metal slimline notebook and hand - size “ mini ” machines .

For internet admins , the Macintosh has always been the purview of advertising agencies , entertainment party , educator and home reckoner users . Mac OS X is just a small supporting issue in a Microsoft - dominate organization .

Yet as the consumer mart begins tomeld with the corporal worldeven more , and employee expect to use their best-loved gadget ( and operating system ) for work and home life , the Mac could make inroads at turgid corporations .

The facts bring out a add up resurgence . Apple sold 36 percentage more Macs in the 2nd one-quarter than the same quarter last year . The caller has sold more than 1 million iPhones and 110 million iPods to escort . There also just seems to be “ something in the air”—or at least the blogosphere — suggest a Mac revival . Blogs such asEngadget.compost about Apple perpetually , and even IT analyst house that have unremarkably play down the Mac as “ recess ” are talking about the platform in thecorporate earth again .

“ We carry that much of today ’s IT substructure is going to be work upside down by the invasion of consumer technologies , ” said Andrew Jaquith , an analyst at Yankee Group Research in Boston . “ Consumerization is going to make IT ’s job harder , and platforms like the Mac are going to become progressively common , in many cases in spite of the wishes of direction . ”

minimum changes or maximum strain ?

For the most part , connecting a Mac to a incarnate LAN does n’t have a existence - shatter effect on carrying into action or support . harmonise to William Green , managing director of networking at the University of Texas in Austin , the Mac has had a minimum impingement on the school ’s infrastructure .

“ All osmium behave differently ; if you have a multivendor environment , you have to deal with the differences , ” said Green . “ There have not been any special problem related to Macs . ”

“ There have been problems with OS spell affecting wireless connectivity for a small portion of Mac laptops in the past tense — specifically related to 802.1X , ” he said . “ Those appear to have been corrected . We have found the Mac OS X client much comfortable for users to configure for wireless and 802.1X. It has been a welfare not stimulate to deal with all the third - company driver that come from the PC / XP human race since this has make a heap of problem for XP user during our 802.1X wireless rollout . ”

Yankee ’s Jaquith note another pitfall . Admins have found they can ferment on the outward firewall in Windows XP SP2 for each connection adapter severally through the GUI . With OS X , however , admins have to apply a statement - contrast argument in the OS X IPFW pecker to turn on the feature , turn on logging and enable stealth modality so the Mac does n’t reply to meshing pings .

data processor consultant Bryan Bowers at Bowers Technologies in Rancho Santa Margarita , Calif. , said his client have had problems with strong connection security act upon with the Mac , likely related to signed server message block connective . Jaquith downplayed this glitch , noting that most corporations probably do n’t have server surety protocol typeset so high that the Mac operating system would have trouble accessing shares .

arbor also mentioned his clients have trouble tie in to mesh printers from a Mac , and that atomic number 99 - mail service waiter shape can sometimes demonstrate problematical , because the servers must be reconfigured to support net Message Access Protocol and Post Office Protocol 3 for inbound mail and Simple Mail Transport Protocol for outward traffic .

The fact that Microsoft has n’t update its Entourage customer for the Mac in several years suggests that its O 10 backing is decline , although a new Office 2008 version for the Mac with a raw Es - mail customer is due in January .

Jaquith name that internet stand-in support for the Mac platform could stupefy a problem for admins , because corporate backup tools often do n’t support the platform . “ Some admins use a Unix command called ‘ rsync ’ to back up Mac hard drives on a scheduled ground , ” he said . “ There are also some Mac - specific tools , like EMC ’s Retrospect , that I ’ve hear work well . ”

For remote direction , the Mac provides the Remote Management tool that forge in the OS X GUI and allows admins to run AppleScripts remotely to change client configurations .

Will the Macs occupy ?

Even with OS X - specific support tools , good compatibility with the meshwork layers in a caller and a wide range of background applications , the one “ Gorilla gorilla in the way ” for widespread Mac espousal in bigger ship’s company is the fact that many customized corporal software wo n’t ferment on the Mac .

Some companies get around this riddle by using virtualization software system fromSWsoft ParallelsorVMware Fusion , or by loadingApple Boot Campon Mac computers so that ending users can boot into OS X or Windows .

Jaquith also noted that company are hesitant to introduce the Mac because they desire to focus on as few operating systems as potential and , he say , “ favour a monoculture in which all machines are the same . ” Most corporations are continually calculate for ways to manage their infrastructure more consistently and measure internet public presentation , and the Mac ( and , for that matter , Linux ) just introduce another variable . Many companies also choose the “ honest-to-goodness familiar engineering ” that Windows XP render .

Another plebeian argument against the Mac is that Apple is the only ironware vendor , although many companies choose one elementary hardware vendor , such as HP or Dell , to reach eubstance in the environment .

Apple itself seems uncomfortable with the corporate world and does n’t actively advertise to the corporate market , suggest the company is happy continuing life as a consumer darling and has no plans to compete with Microsoft .

If Jaquith and others are correct , it ’s the consumer who will land the platform into the corporal world and , it seems , force web managers to confirm the operating system .

[ John Brandon is a freelance writer and book author who worked as an IT manager for 10 class . ]