Apple Makes Bid In Unix-Based Server Space With Xserve
Businesses typically haven't considered Apple servers, except in Macintosh-only networks, said John Eaton, president of Eaton and Associates, a San Francisco-based Apple VAR. But the combination of Xserve and Mac OS X, the Unix-based operating system Apple released last year, could draw more customers to the Mac, he said.
"Up until OS X, AppleShare IP was a joke," Eaton said. "Now we can begin to talk to people about OS X being a viable server platform against Windows NT or 2000."
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The Xserve stands to draw interest from the SMB and enterprise markets.
Sonny Tohan, CEO and owner of Mac Business Solutions, Gaithersburg, Md., said he is working on a deal to integrate a cluster of 50 Xserves for a client that has never used a Mac in its network. "With this server, [Apple is back in the enterprise market and back in the SMB server market," he said.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who unveiled Xserve last week at the vendor's Cupertino campus, said the new server will accelerate the acceptance of OS X.
"The interest Apple has gotten from the Unix community has been strong," he said. "People who wouldn't even talk to us before about Unix when we called them now are talking to us. [Xserve will fuel this even more."
The Xserve, scheduled to ship next month, comes in two 1U models: one unit with a single 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor and 256 Mbytes of DDR RAM, and one system with dual 1GHz G4 processors and 512 Mbytes of DDR RAM. Both models have a 60-Gbyte ATA/100 Apple Drive Module (each storage drive can hold four 60-Gbyte or 120-Gbyte modules), dual Gigabit Ethernet, a CD-ROM drive and Mac OS X Server with unlimited clients.
The single-processor Xserve lists for $2,999, and the dual-processor version is priced at $3,999.