Well, that looks like that then....

[Georgio]

We've had Macs at work since 1994 when I originally bought four 7100's. We've gone through G3's, G4's G5's and then recently iMacs with the last batch bought in 2013.
Talking to our IT dept. as I know the budget is up for discussion and any new machines are now going to be PC based, probably Dell all in ones.
Apparently it's not the iMacs per se but the problems with keeping the ageing AppleServers going.
It's going to be a sad day when we don't have the Macs at work.

 

[theluggage]

Apparently it's not the iMacs per se but the problems with keeping the ageing AppleServers going.
It's going to be a sad day when we don't have the Macs at work.

Dear Apple: this is what happens when you stop making your own server hardware.

Odds are, there are perfectly good solutions for your company combining Mac desktops and Windows or Linux servers - but hey, guess what, if you have to go to Dell for your servers, what do you think they're going to say?

(a) Sure, yes, our servers will work fine with your Macs! or
(b) Macs, dunno, but no worries, we can offer you a great deal on Dell all-in-one desktops!

Now, let me think...

D'oh. Those who know the cost of everything know the value of nothing...

 

[Fishrrman]

RE:
"Dear Apple: this is what happens when you stop making your own server hardware."

I don't think it matters to them any more.
No money "in server hardware or software" ...

 

[Georgio]

Funnily enough when I suggested they should simply set up a Mac mini with all the storage bolted onto it they looked at me as if I was crazy, but I don't see why that wouldn't work.
As usual they want meetings galore, weeks, possibly months to 'consider all options' before making a decision.

It's no wonder the systems at work are so screwed up, especially as they're proud of the fact that they've never, ever upgraded the server software...

 

[neomorpheus]

The sad part is the blind love to anything apple from some people.

Computers are tools and your company should justify their purchases from a logical point of view, not from a "but its an Apple device, it must be good!" point of view.

And before the offended come for my head, do mind that I manage a sizeable fleet of Mac's and Windows machines and to be honest, I have very little practical and real reason to keep macs around, considering the fact that apple continues to ignore the real Pro market, plus charging ridiculous amounts of money for some obsolete hardware and no, macOS is not that magical either.

The only piece of software that forces our hand is FinalCut and there are better options, but the "artists" that HR keeps hiring think that the windows versions of Adobe programs are not the same, even though, its proven to take better advantage of the included hardware, like Cuda support, for example.

Must say do, JAMF plus DEP is awesome, that much I will give.

 

[posguy99]

Apparently it's not the iMacs per se but the problems with keeping the ageing AppleServers going.
It's going to be a sad day when we don't have the Macs at work.

What, besides nothing, does an "AppleServer" (whatever that is) have to do with having an iMac on your desktop, if that's what you need/want?

 

[Kcetech1]

Funnily enough when I suggested they should simply set up a Mac mini with all the storage bolted onto it they looked at me as if I was crazy, but I don't see why that wouldn't work.
As usual they want meetings galore, weeks, possibly months to 'consider all options' before making a decision.

Any of the medium / larger businesses I work with have guidelines on servers. if it don't meet their current rackmount infrastructure, RAIDS, backups and equipment then its a non issue, consumer appliances are NOT allowed in the rack cabinets no matter who makes them. and lets be honest the mini DOES NOT meet minimums such as native 100GBe or fibrechannel networking without adaptors which are not allowed due to stability and cabling guidelines.

 

[chrfr]

We've had Macs at work since 1994 when I originally bought four 7100's. We've gone through G3's, G4's G5's and then recently iMacs with the last batch bought in 2013.
Talking to our IT dept. as I know the budget is up for discussion and any new machines are now going to be PC based, probably Dell all in ones.
Apparently it's not the iMacs per se but the problems with keeping the ageing AppleServers going.
It's going to be a sad day when we don't have the Macs at work.

Macs will happily connect to Windows servers these days. There's no need to move to Dell desktop computers in order to work with a Windows based server.

 

[Kcetech1]

Macs will happily connect to Windows servers these days. There's no need to move to Dell desktop computers in order to work with a Windows based server.

Quite correct, but does management, and the IT people want to allocate the time and money to do it properly?, also what is their future roadmaps I know one production house that all new workstations need to support PCIe fibrechannel cards as they are moving away from GBe. we don't know their planned upgrade or obsolescence paths. plus most advanced network management functions do not work on OSX well or at all, Network remote management, many file versioning setups and such to not work with OSX, I even run across this a lot on my home network let alone in a corperate environment. I have thousands of threads on the topic going back to server 2013 and even Ubuntu server 11 when I was trying to get my 3 nMP's and MBP's to work well on my husbands server environment.

 

[Silencio]

Quite correct, but does management, and the IT people want to allocate the time and money to do it properly?

It's not rocket science to connect a macOS client to an SMB server. Even Apple themselves have deprecated AFP file sharing. I can think of a few valid reasons for a company to not support macOS clients, but that's not one of them.

You only even need a macOS Server at all if you plan on using Profile Manager or doing a few other things to manage macOS and iOS clients, but you can do the vast majority of your macOS client management without one. Munki doesn't require a macOS server. Reposado gets you an Apple SUS clone that runs on any Linux server, and there is even a Netboot replacement that does the same.

 

[Kcetech1]

It's not rocket science to connect a macOS client to an SMB server. Even Apple themselves have deprecated AFP file sharing. I can think of a few valid reasons for a company to not support macOS clients, but that's not one of them.

You only even need a macOS Server at all if you plan on using Profile Manager or doing a few other things to manage macOS and iOS clients, but you can do the vast majority of your macOS client management without one. Munki doesn't require a macOS server. Reposado gets you an Apple SUS clone that runs on any Linux server, and there is even a Netboot replacement that does the same.

no you can connect to an SMB server easily, but once you get into ADS, OS-X has gotten pretty flakey with Active Directory since 10.10. advanced server side recovery features such as remote client cloning and kiosk modes do not work. there are far too many workarounds needed lately if you do much past a netboot or file/printer sharing from all I have read and experienced. one of my main contracts has tossed their hands up and said here have some file shares and go away, to any OSX Clients past 10.11

 

[BayouTiger]

I went from Mac mini’s as servers to a dedicated HP server running ESXi and it’s been flawless. Dell has been banned from my IT purchases as they burned me one too many times. You couldn’t give me a piece of their gear. Glad they spun SonicWall back off before they ruined them.

The combo of Windows Server/Azure and Windows 10 enterprise is awfully good. Still love my Apple gear, but honestly, their server software was never that great anyway.