Windows Server System...can Apple equal it??

[gphillipk]

I'm a recent switcher and don't know much about the range and capabilities of the Server software offered by Apple. I was looking thru a February copy of a computer magazine called "SA Computer Magazine" and on the back cover, there's an ad about the Windows Server system. It features a Motorola Senior Systems Architect claiming that Motorola deployed over 807,000 software packages to 65,000 desktops in 2002 and in the process saved 247,000 admin hours. This is seriously impressive if you've ever had to deploy software to many users. The full story (and others) can be found on http://www.microsoft.com/southafrica/wssystem
What I want to know is what does Apple have that equals or beats the range of products featured in those stories?

 

[nixgeek]

Apple has had the ability to deploy software since the Mac OS Classic days. There was a package called the Apple Network Administration Toolkit, which allowed you to monitor client Macs and even deploy software installations. Remember, this was WAY back before the millenium. And since Apple controls the hardware and OS, it was able to implement this in an easy to use way.

I believe OS X Server does have most of these abilities built in, but I haven't had the time or the resources (no OS X Server CDs ) to actually be sure of this. I know that Macintosh Manager is one of the apps included with ANAT in the past which is now standard in OS X Server.

Anyone else had any experience with such packages in X Server?

 

[Pengu]

Um. You can push out images of software to clients using remote imaging, or use Remote Desktop to install packages/run scripts/etc on clients, even at timed intervals if you want.