Nik Rawlinson
I don’t own an Xserve, and it’s unlikely I ever would have bought one, but that doesn’t mean I don’t mourn its passing. Xserve was an iconic product and, despite the fact that the most any of us ever saw of it was the 19in slice of its front screwed into a server rack, it looked just as good – and as understated – as a MacBook Pro or Mac mini. Its looks alone aren’t why I’m sorry to see it go, though. I’m concerned about public perception.
Apple is fighting a valiant battle in the enterprise arena. It has had to do much to convince business customers that it isn’t there just to make pretty computers that run Photoshop at least as well as a Windows PC. Its focus has drifted towards the mobile product space to the point that it now seems to pay at least as much attention to the iPod, iPad and iPhone as it does the MacBook, iMac and Mac Pro. It’s a drift that has called for some clever marketing to convince us that these smart handheld devices are more than mere toys.
Features such as remote wipe and an easy way to locate your lost iPhone were added specifically to calm business users’ concerns that these were all too easily lost along with more than a handful of potentially sensitive data.
Exchange support was there from the outset, along with push email, initially courtesy of Yahoo and now of MobileMe. Both of these are essential business tools, which leaves me wondering what those business users will say about Apple’s enterprise credentials once the Xserve is pulled from the shelves in January 2011.
It’s sweetening the pill by suggesting that users instead turn to the Mac mini or a specially configured Mac Pro, but I doubt that they will be any more convinced than I am. Xserve was built to a specific size and shape, it was discreet and it sat happily in a server cabinet among its peers. A Mac mini may be smaller, but it’s less manageable, less easily upgraded and less easily configured – either at the point of purchase or later – than the Xserve. The Mac Pro answers these flexibility questions, but it’s a bulky hulk of a machine that demands some towering shelf space or a dark corner all of its own in which to sit and brood.
If Apple really is serious about the enterprise market, as I believe it is, then it must cover that field from end to end. Its line-up must provide for us a fully integrated setup that fits into existing business constraints. The Xserve did that.
Safety switches on an iPod and a first-class server operating system are nice, but not enough.
At best this uncomfortable Mac Pro/mini fix is a transitional stopgap. At worst, it’s Apple’s long-term server play.
