Apple Serves Up SMB Server Option With Mac OS X

The computer maker last weekend shipped Mac OS X Server 10.2. Code-named Jaguar Server, the major upgrade to Apple's 15-month-old, Unix-based server operating system will power the Xserve 1U rack-mount server that Apple released July 1.

Apple executives said the combined products form an attractive option to Dell Computer, IBM and Sun Microsystems servers running Microsoft Windows, Linux and Sun Solaris.

A big value for SMBs is that Xserve includes an unlimited client license for the server software, said Brian Croll, director of server software marketing at Apple. Xserve starts at a list price of $2,999 for a single 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor unit and $3,999 for a dual 1GHz G4 unit.

"If you buy an Xserve, you get an unlimited number of users for it," Croll said. "With the Windows platform, once you buy the server hardware, you usually have to buy about as much as you just spent on the server for the client licenses."

Jaguar Server brings more than 50 new features, including network management tools that let users boot multiple systems and install software from the network, an LDAPv3 open-source directory server and central management console and remote server management tools.

"One of the big challenges we've taken on with this product is that you don't really need Unix expertise," Croll said. "So we think we can take the power of Unix and expand it to a much wider customer base than it's ever been able to reach before."

As of last month, Apple had shipped more than 4,000 Xserves, said Alex Grossman, director of server and storage marketing at the company. "We have a lot of power inside a 1U box that really compares with most other 2U and 4U servers," he said.

Apple plans to add VAR partners to help drive sales of the Xserve, which is being positioned as a solution-based sell via the channel, Grossman said. "We're seeing solution providers looking to Apple because they need an alternative," he said.

Companies using Macs as their core desktop hardware will be the primary customers for Xserve, said David Salav, president of PWR Systems, a Bohemia, N.Y.-based Apple VAR. "I don't foresee a company that's using PCs going out and buying an Apple server to serve PC clients," he said. "But now with the Xserve, Apple can go back and reclaim the Mac desktops connected to non-Apple servers."

Still, the Xserve/Jaguar Server combo will draw some attention from non-Apple users and solution providers, Salav added. "There are a lot of companies out there that were not looking at Apple simply because they didn't have an industrial-strength server solution," he said. "Now that they do, it's a new ball game."