We support Macs for our Marketing department. I don't believe we deal with too many issues, but that's probably because most of their productivity applications are delivered via Citrix. We use ExtremeZ-IP from Group Logics to handle file sharing from a Windows 2003 server.
I guess I would put the responsibility on the requestor to prove why a PC solution would not be sufficient. I've heard in the past that Macs were superior for Graphic Design, Video editing, etc., but is that really the case anymore? As someone else pointed out, most of the applications (or comparable applications) these days are available for PC. I'm all for catering to the business needs of users, but sometimes a line has to be drawn in an effort to streamline your support guidelines. Are you, or do you have someone on staff, experienced with Macs in an AD environment (I'm assuming you're running AD)? If not, you should be able to make a case for equipment standards. - Sean On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 3:06 PM, Steven Peck <[email protected]> wrote: > It has been our experience that while the technical issues of MAC's > can be resolved, most issues come from the MAC users themselves. > Having got themselves a little exception to the overall IT policy, > they will often refuse to play nice with things like storing files on > network shares which are backed up. Consume support resources with > their custom needs the drain your teams time. Make constant snide > comments about Windows and support and get really irritable when you > produce the article clearly showing it was a MAC issue. > > The last time we looked at 'some groups' needs, there were Windows > versions of all the applications available but they were able to > maintain their separate resource stance. Of course we were all > sympathy when they lost a major amount of data do to their refusal to > play nice with corporate IT policy. > > Of course, I may be biased. > > Steven > > On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 12:24 PM, Jonathan Link <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I use VMWare Fusion with a license of WindowsXP on my MacBook Pro, and > can > > launch the windows version of Outlook for the full integrated email > > experience. > > > > > > On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 2:34 PM, Murray Freeman <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> > >> I'm being asked to investigate the use of a few MAC's in our network. I > >> know that it would be only used by a few of our staff for graphics and a > few > >> other apps. I'm concerned about the ability of a MAC to interface into > our > >> network and Exchange Server email.Obviously we would purchase new > machines, > >> so they could be dual boot machines. I'm also aware of virtualization, > but > >> haven't looked into that as of yet. Any suggestions, warnings or > concerns > >> from anyone with this kind of experience would be greatly appreciated. > >> > >> > >> Murray > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
