Apple strategy for the future

[Silas1066]

In the future, I would like to see the following from Apple:

1. An iCloud-based directory services architecture. This would allow businesses to manage resources, handle single-sign-in authentication, and store data in a dynamic, centralized environment.

2. An enhanced iWork suite with better compatibility with 3rd party office programs.

3. A rack-mount option for the Mac Pro, and even an Apple manufactured rack! Graphic designers and power users need this kind of stuff, and with the Xserve gone, they are frustrated.

4. Enhanced Wiki-services, or collaboration environments within the cloud (see #1) that can out-perform and replace things like MS Sharepoint.

I think the goal should not be to go head-to-head against MS and others in the Enterprise, but rather to replace the Enterprise altogether. Apple has already started to do this, but it needs to do more.

Being a creative guy that got into the IT industry, I think like Steve Jobs, and I always ask why things are so complicated, why we need a specific device or machine, or why we do things in an inefficient way. What can be replaced? What can be enhanced?

Imagine a medium-sized business that runs almost entirely on tablets (iPads), iPhones, and a few laptops? The front-end exists, now Apple needs to finish building out the back-end.

And I will close by pointing out that we cannot keep assuming business and private life (the consumer) are separate. These things are coming together quickly, and Apple needs solutions for both.

5-10 years from now, office buildings will be virtually obsolete, and the company-owned data-centers inside those buildings will be moved into the cloud (one way or another).

 

[nuckinfutz]

My hopes:

A collaboration framework in future OS X/iOS, based on iCloud and a new Filesystem in OS X.

More effort put into OS X Server.

At least one Apple storage device for centralizing data.

A move towards grid/distributed computing.

Supporting more open (ODF) formats for iWork.

Put Services on steroids so that round-tripping data is trivial.

 

[KnightWRX]

Moving your business into the "cloud" works if you don't value confidentiality and security. That's why businesses are building their own in-house clouds.

One point stands out though :

3. A rack-mount option for the Mac Pro, and even an Apple manufactured rack! Graphic designers and power users need this kind of stuff, and with the Xserve gone, they are frustrated.

Being a creative guy that got into the IT industry, I think like Steve Jobs, and I always ask why things are so complicated, why we need a specific device or machine, or why we do things in an inefficient way. What can be replaced? What can be enhanced?

Putting 2 CPUs into a 4U enclosure is not enhancing anything. It's quite the opposite. Computing density has reached much better levels in the last few years, we can now fit double those cores into a single U.

Seems to me you need to do some homework about IT and think less like a creative guy. Who cares what it looks like, it's what it does that's important.

 

[neiltc13]

Sounds like you want a lot of enterprise things. You might have got them if the Apple of 5 or 6 years ago was here today, but sadly that ship has sailed.

Apple's priority now is iPhone and iPad hardware. Everything else Apple does is negligible in comparison, and likely not worth the investment to them.

 

[Silas1066]

Moving your business into the "cloud" works if you don't value confidentiality and security. That's why businesses are building their own in-house clouds.

One point stands out though :




Putting 2 CPUs into a 4U enclosure is not enhancing anything. It's quite the opposite. Computing density has reached much better levels in the last few years, we can now fit double those cores into a single U.

Seems to me you need to do some homework about IT and think less like a creative guy. Who cares what it looks like, it's what it does that's important.

Many businesses are building private cloud architectures, but many others are moving services and data into 3rd party clouds. Are there risks with this? Sure--there are risks with anything. Someone could hack into your existing systems, or break into your data center. The idea that you can't have confidentiality and security if you use a cloud is silly.

If I am starting a company, I don't WANT to build a data center: I would rather use Apple's quite frankly.

 

[G51989]

Many businesses are building private cloud architectures, but many others are moving services and data into 3rd party clouds. Are there risks with this? Sure--there are risks with anything. Someone could hack into your existing systems, or break into your data center. The idea that you can't have confidentiality and security if you use a cloud is silly.

If I am starting a company, I don't WANT to build a data center: I would rather use Apple's quite frankly.

Most large business wouldn't trust their data with 3rd partys, some might.

Have a buddy who worked IT for a few years for Westinghouse Electric. They make nuclear reactors for power plants, carriers and submarines.

Would you trust that data being in your own data center? That you have total control over? Or put nuclear secerts in Apples cloud?

Just an example.

 

[KnightWRX]

Someone could hack into your existing systems, or break into your data center.

Sure, but if you use 3rd party cloud services, you don't even know the people who have legitimate access to your data, the cloud services' IT people.

The idea that you can't have confidentiality and security if you use a cloud is silly.

It's really not when you consider anyone who has root access or physical access to servers where your data is stored has automatic access to your data. If those people are from a 3rd party not under your control, you have just forfeited both security and confidentiality.

If I am starting a company, I don't WANT to build a data center: I would rather use Apple's quite frankly.

I would rather use a colo location where my servers are my own, under lock and key only available to myself and my IT people, I have my own root password and my own telecom access with only a single uplink where all the traffic from my own in-house systems to my colo is encrypted over a site-to-site IPSEC VPN.

Hosting my directory services on someone else's system, whom I have no idea who has access to it, is simply insane to me. Same for any stored data.

And I doubt iCloud Colo is something Apple wants to get into.