Apple Teams in Leopard Server

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif

The presence of a Teams project at Mac OS Forge prompted a lot of speculation about what Apple's "Teams" could be.

An update describes Teams as "feature of Mac OS X Server, slated for Leopard (10.5). Among its features, it includes a web-based calendar client which works with the Calendar Server."

Apple's Eric Zelenka offers some additional details on the OS X Server mailing list:

Teams is a revolutionary new way for people to work together. Teams lets people share contacts, resources, information and communicate more effectively—as a team.

With Teams, groups receive their own website--an online Wiki Server-- listing the latest news, upcoming events and providing people access to online documents. This Wiki-powered website makes it easy for people within the group to create and edit web page content, hyperlink and crosslink between page and maintain history of all past changes. In addition, this group website provides web-based access to a shared group calendar, and a blog communication and podcasting.

But thats not all. Launching the new Teams Directory application gives you access to shared accounts for people, groups, locations and resources within your organization. You can use Teams Directory to find information, or define new shared contacts, assign people to groups and logically organize groups based on hierarchy. With Teams Directory you can define office locations complete with searchable building and location maps, as well as manage shared resources such as conference rooms and projectors.

Apple's Leopard Server Sneak Peak pages provide some screenshots of the features described.

[Frisco]

Looks like Apple is finally paying some attention to the Enterprise market!

[odedia]

Originally Posted by Frisco

Looks like Apple is finally paying some attention to the Enterprise market!

Exactly! Hit Microsoft right where it hurts the most.

[Lukasha]

But does this mean we'll FINALLY have an Exchange killer that will connect not only to Mail/Address Book/iCal/Whatever in Leopard but Thunderbird/Entourage/Outlook/etc.? If Apple or a 3rd party can replicate the functionality of Exchange at a much cheaper price point and make it work seamlessly across all those clients, Microsoft will be dead.

Jeff

[csubear]

Originally Posted by Frisco

Looks like Apple is finally paying some attention to the Enterprise market!

Enterpriese, yes, but also home. A whole lot of those features I'd like to have at home ^.^

[MacVault]

Originally Posted by Frisco

Looks like Apple is finally paying some attention to the Enterprise market!

I hope so! It's about time! But to compete with MS Apple better put more effort into the design, integration and marketing of their Enterprise offerings. Apple hasn't seemed very interested in pushing a Directory Services product and if Teams is any good it will have to include more than calendering. How about a total Active Directory & Exchange killer product from Apple? I would love to see that!

[~Shard~]

Interesting development... Microsoft ain't gonna be happy... Which of course is a good thing.

[shelterpaw]

Originally Posted by MacVault

I hope so! It's about time! But to compete with MS Apple better put more effort into the design, integration and marketing of their Enterprise offerings. Apple hasn't seemed very interested in pushing a Directory Services product and if Teams is any good it will have to include more than calendering. How about a total Active Directory & Exchange killer product from Apple? I would love to see that!

Well they're pushing OpenDirectory: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/opendirectory.html

Seems to me they're trying to get all their ducks in a row before they push things hard. Some of the features sound awesome, hopefully they work as well as they sound.

[IJ Reilly]

Originally Posted by csubear

Enterpriese, yes, but also home. A whole lot of those features I'd like to have at home ^.^

My thoughts exactly. I don't want to have to buy into OSX Server to get these features. I hope they include at least a limited-client version for us small office/home office folks.

[Shintocam]

Hmmm....a lot of the features sound sort of like Plone (http://plone.org) to me which would be nice if it were well integrated.

[ickies]

Can anyone make out what kind of phone that is in the podcasting screenshot? I don't recognize it. Is it something on the market or perhaps...something else?

http://images.apple.com/server/macos...op20060807.png

[MacsRgr8]

Man.. an iCal server would be SO GREAT!!

For such reasons many use Kerio Mailserver with M$ Entourage client... (no way an Exchange Server should EVER be used... )

So, integrate iCal, Address Book, Mail into it all!

Can't wait for this.

[mkrishnan]

I never know how to feel about a feature like this. It's very innovative and I love the concept, but then it fills me with sadness that I will never get to use it unles it gets copied by Microsoft or... shudder ... Novell. God, Groupwise makes me pine for Exchange, it's such a piece of garbage.

[Evangelion]

Originally Posted by ickies

Can anyone make out what kind of phone that is in the podcasting screenshot? I don't recognize it. Is it something on the market or perhaps...something else?

http://images.apple.com/server/macos...op20060807.png

looks like Sony-Ericsson. If THAT is the rumoured Apple-phone, I would be SERIOUSLY disappointed. It would look like yet another generic cell-phone!

[ickies]

Originally Posted by Evangelion

looks like Sony-Ericsson. If THAT is the rumoured Apple-phone, I would be SERIOUSLY disappointed. It would look like yet another generic cell-phone!

Yeah, it looks pretty butt to me, too.

[the_ki]

Shared resources? Team blogs and wikis? Document storage? Sounds to me like they're not only going after Exchange, they're going after SharePoint. And if anyone here has ever tried to set up and use SharePoint, you know what a pain in the a$$ it is.

[medazinol]

Originally Posted by Lukasha

But does this mean we'll FINALLY have an Exchange killer that will connect not only to Mail/Address Book/iCal/Whatever in Leopard but Thunderbird/Entourage/Outlook/etc.? If Apple or a 3rd party can replicate the functionality of Exchange at a much cheaper price point and make it work seamlessly across all those clients, Microsoft will be dead.

Jeff

This is the beginning of a collaboration system from Apple. To think that everyone will replace Exchange with this is just crazy. They have a lot invested in Exchange, it works (unless you're on a Mac and it a bit of a headache). I think it's a great thing they are finally realizing they need such a system but integrated like Exchange is not likely. MS has a HUGE head start on Apple in this area and Microsoft will not lose any of this market share to Apple.

[bjdku]

Originally Posted by the_ki

Shared resources? Team blogs and wikis? Document storage? Sounds to me like they're not only going after Exchange, they're going after SharePoint. And if anyone here has ever tried to set up and use SharePoint, you know what a pain in the a$$ it is.

My thoughts exactly! This is gonna be sharepoint done right plus some! Leopard server just might be the OS version where I start to suggest to my clients as an alternative to Windows Small Business Server......

[twoodcc]

Originally Posted by ~Shard~

Interesting development... Microsoft ain't gonna be happy... Which of course is a good thing.

that's right ....

[MacVault]

My concern though is will Apple really push it for the long run into the enterprise? I think Apple should take on Exchange, Active Directory, SharePoint, Outlook, etc for the business/enterprise market. So is Apple Teams gonna be a really good product but end up just fading into history on MacOSForge, as has been the case with their implementation of Open Dirctory????

[ifjake]

To me I think this stuff would be best implemented when starting from scratch, not upgrading from another system. This will only sell to companies looking to totally redo what they have. If they aren't, they won't. Smaller businesses also seem more likely. I also hope some of this stuff works with the regular version of Leopard, else that "Whole Package" talk just turns into a whole lotta crap. Families and households shouldn't have to buy a server to get their computers to work this way.

[MacNemesis]

The project itself is not open source as may be implied by the article. Or at least it's not listed. Given what it does, I don't see Teams being open sourced. The CalDAV server, however is. Or am I missing something?

That being said, it's an amazing integration of existing technologies and probably the best use of AJAX outside of Google.

[MacG]

Damn one more reason why its frustrating that my corp IT department refuses to support macs at the office. Wintel only. And my Mac usage is reserved for home/personal.

I'd love to have that at the office. We've recently begun using Wiki's at the office as a way for software engineering teams to collaborate - they're very effective. I'd love to see Apple's spin on this concept.

[iMeowbot]

Originally Posted by IJ Reilly

My thoughts exactly. I don't want to have to buy into OSX Server to get these features. I hope they include at least a limited-client version for us small office/home office folks.

Since both Teams and Calendar Server are out there under Apple's festering heap of Open Sores, it will be available in some form. At worst, people in the cheap seats will have to edit a few configuration files to get it set up.

Originally Posted by MacG

I'd love to have that at the office. We've recently begun using Wiki's at the office as a way for software engineering teams to collaborate - they're very effective. I'd love to see Apple's spin on this concept.

The Apple spin on the wiki is a wiki It's not yet really clear if this will have any integration with the iCal Server, or if the Teams thing is a separate project.

[MattInOz]

Seems to me Leopard server is really shaping up to be what some of us Mac token "Admins" have been asking for (and my friendly mac sales man tells me i'm not the only one) ...

It's our own little .Mac server in a box.
It's shaping up to be a very nice upgrade, it seems to have everything built in that I was hoping to getting around to setting up some time, between the real fee paying work.