Ever since Mac OS X Lion was announced , many of us have been wondering what it will mean for businesses and IT section . So far , that discussion has focus largely on distribution : How will Apple’sMac - App - Store - only approachwork when you ’re installing and managing the young OS on scads , if not hundreds , of political machine ? But while that is indeed a big query ( to whichwe know some , but not all , of the solution ) , it ’s not the only one worth asking . Mac OS X Lion has more than 250 Modern feature of speech ; a few of them will really matter to businesses and IT . What will they intend ? Here ’s what I think .

AirDrop

Moving files , especially large ones between citizenry has always been a pain - dot for any internet . Email is one option , but attachment can get out of control , you have to deal with email retentivity policies , and you have to manage huge mailstores . you could also expend instant messaging services like iChat waiter or traditional file services like FTP / AFP . But if the file(s ) do n’t really need to be on a waiter , or if the user needs to transport single file with someone outside of your mesh , then those options can be unwieldy — and they usurp your company already has a server base .

AirDrophas the potential to simplify all of that . It finds local computers — without any kind of networking set - up — and lets you pip files back and forth among them . The connection and transfers are secure with Transport Layer Security ( TLS ) . And it integrate with Address Book , so if the transmitter is in your list of liaison , you see a photograph of him or her with the file transfer of training . For small- or medium - sized companies that require a simple way to dash files around , AirDrop could be a big service without a lot of dogfight .

Auto Save

When we heard about this one , everyone in my department did the well-chosen dance . I can not tell you how many times I ’ve had the following exchange : “ John , [ fill in the applications programme ] operate up . Will I lose all of my work ? ” “ When was the last time you deliver ? ” “ Hours ago . ” “ Then you will drop off the study you ’ve done since then . ”Auto Saveand Versions are Brobdingnagian for business organization and IT . Yes , they ’ll require more storage space . But I do n’t handle . I could look through every panicked call and aid - desk tag I ’ve received in the last year : A massive clod of them would not be there if we ’d had this feature . From my perspective , Auto Save is a major reason to upgrade to Lion as soon as you could .

FileVault 2

Full Disk Encryptiondoes a number of things . First , it makes your system more secure ; either you have the passphrase or you have no access to the data . secondly , it makes potential a Mac OS hug drug interlingual rendition of the remote wipes you’re able to do on iOS gadget . If the drive is encrypted , and if you may remotely destroy the encryption samara , then bang : the data is inaccessible . you could then in reality erase the data at your leisure time . Without that first part , it could take hours to fully pass over a large hard drive ; if a thief is even slightly chic , he or she could jerk out the drive well before the wipe is done . For company that have sore data point traveling around , build - in Full Disk Encryption is not a pocket-size thing .

iChat & Mail

One new trick — the ability to sum new overhaul toiChatvia plug - ins — could be really ready to hand , especially if such a plugin could link to such national corporate messaging systems as Microsoft Lync , Lotus SameTime , and others . Mail’simproved backup for Exchange 2010 , let in out - of - power content , is interchangeable : not vast but quite welcome .

Windows DFS Support

This one is belike more for the enterprise end of the market , but it ’s something that a lot of people have need for a while . The quick variant : WithDFS ( disseminate File System ) , you could have multiple file servers and stores that together pretend like one big share . So if one or more of your server go down , the share persist up as long as there at least one waiter is useable . ) If your electronic internet has a lot of Windows Servers , the IT department has probably either implemented or is seriously thinking about implementing DFS . Prior to Mac OS X Lion , the only style Macs could sing to DFS shares was either via third - party software such as Thursby Software ’s ADmit Mac or by running Windows in a virtual auto or Boot Camp . Native OS backing for DFS does not suck .

Per-User Screen Sharing

While Mac oculus sinister XScreen Sharingor Apple Remote Desktop are nerveless tools , they ’ve always had one limitation liken to things like Microsoft ’s Remote Desktop Client : you could n’t have multiple separate logins . That is , you could n’t have multiple user log into one Mac , and have their own login with their own background , sessions , etc . at the same time . To get that on a Mac , you had to use a product like Aqua Connect ’s Terminal Server , or sign in with SSH and use the command cable . ( Yes , I sleep together , you could also use X11 . But X11 ’s integration with Mac OS X has always been limit and — frankly — kind of eldritch . )

With Mac OS X Lion , multiple separate full logins are possible . That has some interesting possibility . Being able-bodied to do up Macs as Terminal Servers could be a great way to get more use out of Mac OS X Server . Have a tradition software that mass only need to use on occasion ? Put it on a single host and let your users hightail it it remotely . Have a mellow - oddment lotion that allows for per - drug user or per - server licensing ? Terminal Services like this allow you to take reward of those choice in ways that the Mac OS just did n’t support before . Now , keep in judgement , I ’m speculating a bit here . I do n’t know that this will terminate up being a “ right ” terminal services implementation . But it is a naturalistic possibility .

And more

There ’s more in Lion that commercial enterprise will care — including free Xsan File System support , proper push support in Mac OS X Server Mail and iCal servers , iOS equipment management . And keep in judgment that most of what I ’ve note above does n’t ask Mac OS X Lion Server ; it ’s what you get in the generic client version . But perhaps the best thing about Lion for businesses is this :

Apple is not an “ enterprise ” fellowship . That ’s good because , if it were , we would n’t be mother an O with this many fresh features and updates for $ 29 or the Server interlingual rendition for $ 49 . We ’d be compensate C or thousands of dollar instead . We ’d have labyrinthine tiers of service , with devilishly complicated licensing and “ assurance ” plans . If the total operating system cost for a host is less than a hundred dollar bill , you do n’t handle about stuff and nonsense like “ confidence ” : The price is so low , you do n’t need multi - year rebate design . Want to add a server to the mix ? you may do it dirt tacky .

A batch of people say that Apple is commoditizing servers . They say that like it ’s a spoiled thing . I completely disagree . I think that by continuously sum business- or enterprise - friendly features to the base operating organization , and by not charging hole of money for the waiter version , Apple is pee it far easier for their quarry business markets — namely didactics and the SMB crowd — to implement Apple hardware and operating systems .

John Welch is IT Director for The Zimmerman Agency , and a tenacious - fourth dimension Mac IT pundit .

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