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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) always has had presence in certain markets -- most notably in design, content creation and education. But mention Apple's name in the general enterprise market, and it is ignored politely, at best.
"Outside of their traditional customer base, they are not seen as an enterprise provider, and they have to prove [otherwise]," Creative Strategies senior analyst Tim Bajarin told MacNewsWorld.
However, as Apple's server software and hardware offerings proliferate, this attitude might change. Its 1U Xserve 64-bit G5 starts at US$2,999; an unlimited client license for its Unix-based Mac OS X Panther Server retails at $999; and a 1 TB Xserve RAID costs under $6,000.
Meanwhile, Xsan, Apple's storage-area network (SAN) offering, is expected to be available in the fall. This application, like OS X Panther Server, will retail at $999 and will be optimized to work with Apple's 64-bit file system.
Apple has the potential to make gains in its traditional markets and inroads into that elusive (for it) enterprise space. What steps can the company take to inspire CIOs and IT managers, many of whom already have invested in non-Apple infrastructure, to "think different" and consider its products for corporate workgroups and data centers?
Step One: Cut the Price
Tom Goguen, director of servers and storage at Apple, said in an interview with MacNewsWorld that Panther Server is central to all of Apple's enterprise offerings, adding that the company pursued an aggressive path by capping its price at under $1,000 and offering an umlimited-user license.
For his part, Bajarin said Apple is offering what he called "spectacular pricing."
"That, along with the Xserve architecture, should at the very least get serious nods from corporate America," Bajarin said.
Step Two: Exploit Open Source
Panther Server comes with several well-known open source applications powering primary services for Web, mail and user management through file services and directory services.
"Our strategy has been to adopt and contribute to open source technology rather than reinvent the wheel," Goguen explained.
According to Goguen, Apple was the first server software vendor to release Samba 3, which he said demonstrates Panther Server's capabilities in a multiplatform environment for file-and-print services.
In addition, Panther Server's LDAP implementation supports interaction with Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Active Directory, Lotus Domino and Novell's EDir directory services, Goguen noted.
"One thing we do to differentiate ourselves is to do the testing and integration of the software we use on the server for the customer," Goguen said.
"For example, an administrator can set up e-mail services in a few checkboxes instead of having to build software from source and test prior to setup."
Step Three: Grow Its Market
IDC server analyst Mark Melenovsky said that, although most Unix-based low-end server deployments involve Linux, Apple has the potential to gain market share in this area with its Xserve.
Melenovsky sees Apple's aggressive pricing and similarity to Linux as a way to counter the popular open source operating system and its relatively low price to deploy.
"The PowerPC chip could be an inhibitor as there is a general perception that the x86 platform is more broad," Melenovsky said. However, he said that Apple could counter this if IBM (NYSE: IBM) sees success with its PowerPC server hardware -- which would serve to build recognition of the G5's architecture.
Step Four: Leverage High-Performance Computing
Melenovsky observed that so-called "high-performance computing" is another area in which Apple can gain traction. Traditionally, such environments were found primarily in academia, science and government.
"Now we are seeing financial services companies needing to analyze portfolios and retail operations automating supply-chain management," Melenovsky said, adding that people working in these areas are examining high-performance clusters as a workable option.
Goguen said Xsan has the goods to accommodate these advanced clustering and storage needs. According to him, the Xsan platform will handle files and volumes up to 16 terabytes in size and support concurrent access of up to 64 users directly connected to the storage area network over fiber channel.
Step Five: Play Nice with Others
"We are targeting our traditional markets that have demand for large files and streaming audio and video," Goguen continued. "However, Xsan is a solution across the enterprise -- whether it is for [network attached storage] replacement or in a multi-operating-system environment with cluster and high-availability storage needs."
Goguen said Xsan is 100 percent compatible with the StorNext File System from Advanced Digital Information Corporation (ADIC), which enables Xsan to deploy alongside Unix and Windows servers.
Bajarin believes this is critical to Apple's success, at the enterprise level.
"When you have mixed environments with Linux and Unix back ends, the [Apple's] compatibility opens some doors," he said.
Staying true to their reputation for usability, Goguen pointed out Xsan includes management tools for administering implementations at no additional cost.
"We have been working on it for quite some time," Goguen said. "We are offering a multiterabyte, multi-SAN solution for under $50,000 and the tools to manage it."
