Apple Targeting Small Business Customers at Retail Stores

[VicMacs]

does openldap on OS X come with a schema you can use out of the box like Active Directory? the killer feature about AD is that if you had it since Windows 2000 you can upgrade it every version and every LDAP enabled application that MS ships will work with it as long as you are running a minimum version which only changes once every 7 years or so.

and everyone is shipping AD integrated apps that work since the schema is pretty stable.

from the apple site http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/technology/open-directory.html

Seamless directory server integration.

The Open Directory server integrates easily into your existing enterprise directory systems. With Augmented Records, you can use your company’s primary directory server — whether Active Directory or Open Directory — for all user and group lookups and authentication. With no schema changes, you can store any custom information needed for client management, calendaring, or collaboration services in the local Open Directory server.

 

[Stella]

from the apple site http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/technology/open-directory.html

Seamless directory server integration.

The Open Directory server integrates easily into your existing enterprise directory systems. With Augmented Records, you can use your company’s primary directory server — whether Active Directory or Open Directory — for all user and group lookups and authentication. With no schema changes, you can store any custom information needed for client management, calendaring, or collaboration services in the local Open Directory server.

Thats just the marketing blurb. Unfortunately it doesn't work that well. For real world you have to use third party software for reliability.

I wish the marketing was as good as real world use. Maybe you'd get 3 months of battery use in the magic mouse, as Apple claimed!

 

[adjuster]

If I was running my own business the first thing I would want in a computer is room for two internal hard drives so I can always back up data and not an all in one. Why pay to replace everything when only the monitor or computer goes bad. Sounds like Apple needs something between the mini and the Pro if they are going after small businesses.

To do it correctly, you would clone your internal drive with an external drive every day so that if the internal drive fails, you could be back up immediately. A neat package is a MacMini (powerful computer in a small package, now that it will take 8gb ram and drives two screens) with a Macsales NewerTech miniStack drive under it. Makes a nice, compact system.

You would then copy your data with two drives that you rotate off site.

You do not need two internal drives.

 

[snberk103]

If I was running my own business the first thing I would want in a computer is room for two internal hard drives so I can always back up data and not an all in one. ... .

To do it correctly, you would clone your internal drive with an external drive every day so that if the internal drive fails, you could be back up immediately. A neat package is a MacMini (powerful computer in a small package, now that it will take 8gb ram and drives two screens) with a Macsales NewerTech miniStack drive under it. Makes a nice, compact system.

You would then copy your data with two drives that you rotate off site.

You do not need two internal drives.

I agree with adjuster. And to expand on what they say. A business especially can't relay on a system with both the primary and the backup date inside it. Too many things can happen to it. Theft, employee doing something dumb to it, fire, water leak or liquid spill, etc etc. Rotating your data off-site is definitely the way to go. Even putting the external HD on a separate shelf is better than putting your backup on an internal HD.

 

[blunderboy]

I personally think that this is a pretty good idea, if they can find a way to get developers to write business apps for the Mac. It'd be good to see the Windows enterprise monopoly defused.

 

[KnightWRX]

To do it correctly, you would clone your internal drive with an external drive every day so that if the internal drive fails, you could be back up immediately.

Or not. You mirror both internal drives so that your machine doesn't go down in the first place, and you backup to tape which is cheaper per GB than a hard drive and much more reliable and durable.

A neat package is a MacMini (powerful computer in a small package, now that it will take 8gb ram and drives two screens) with a Macsales NewerTech miniStack drive under it. Makes a nice, compact system.

You would then copy your data with two drives that you rotate off site.

You do not need two internal drives.

Please leave systems administration to real systems administrators. What you're proposing is just awful. It might be good enough for a home user, but businesses are about uptime and reliability.

RAID mirroring or parity to guarantee uptime, tape for reliable backups at reasonable costs. Plus tapes are much less prone to damage in the course of transport than mechanical drives.