Even after the dramatic resurgence of the Mac platform since the late 1990s, most businesses today still use Windows PCs. There is still the prevailing  misconception that, for general business, Windows is the better choice whereas, the Mac is a better choice for home users, or for creative endeavors.  As an Apple Consultant, I see every day that this old myth is wrong.  The Mac is great for business.  In fact, you can run your whole business on a Mac.

There is a growing number of small and medium sized businesses (and even some large ones) that are adopting the Mac as their primary computing platform.  These companies have found that the Mac is just as capable of running their accounting, email and messaging, file sharing, and web services.  There are several great accounting software titles available for the Mac [Macworld Review].  These include Quickbooks from Intuit, and MYOB AccountEdge.  For businesses who are seeking to avoid the high licensing and maintenance costs associated with Microsoft Exchange, my recommendation is Kerio Connect 7 (formerly Kerio Mail Server).    Mac OS X Server’s file sharing capabilities are excellent, even in mixed computing environments.  Since 2003′s release of Mac OS X Server v. 10.3, Mac OS X Server has had the capability of serving as a primary domain controller for Windows PCs.  Mac OS X Server leverages industry standard LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol), and Kerberos services to provide secure authentication services to both Mac and Windows PCs.  Apple calls its implementation of LDAP Open Directory.   Mac and Windows PCs can bind directly to Open Directory, which enables the server to host home directories for end users, and allow each user to access all of the share points and services that he or she has been authorized to access.  Mac OS X Server offers a much simpler interface for which to manage the server, and all of its services.

Accounting

Accounting as long been a Windows only endeavor.  While the Mac has always had some kind of accounting software available, it has always fallen short of the needs of business customers.  That’s changing.  Intuit has made several improvements to its Mac offerings in recent years.  In addition, Intuit has released Quickbooks Online, which allows both Mac, and Windows users to access their company’s financial data whenever, and wherever they choose.  The iPhone is also supported.  For customers who prefer to use Windows for accounting, but a Mac for everything else, Parallels Desktop, and VMware Fusion will allow customers to run Windows side by side with Mac OS X.  This allows businesses to continue running the Windows versions of their accounting software while enjoying the many benefits and advantages that a Mac offers.  Running Windows in this way will also allow accountants to access the various web based payroll services that are still not Mac friendly.

Email, contacts, and scheduling

For years, business computing has been dominated by Microsoft.  Most large businesses, and many small businesses, use Exchange.  Exchange offers access to email on your desktop PC, and compatible mobile devices, and it offers the ability to check your email, access contacts, and your schedule from a web site.  Exchange works really well with Windows, but its spotty support for the Mac has been an annoyance for Mac users, and I.T. professionals ever since its introduction.  Often, Mac users in large organizations are left in the cold when it comes to full support for email, contacts, and calendaring.

With the release of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), Apple has stepped up to make the Mac compatible with Exchange.  The Mac now fully supports Exchange 2007.  The iPhone also supports Exchange.  What if your business wants to totally abandon Microsoft, and go with an all Mac solution?  Mac OS X Server provides a great email, calendar, and contacts solution, but it does have some holes.  It’s not fully compatible with Windows, and even the iPhone is not fully supported in the same way that Exchange works with the iPhone.  Wouldn’t it be great to have a truly cross platform solution that is both easy to manage, and Mac friendly?  That’s where Kerio Connect comes in.

Kerio Connect is the perfect solution for small and medium businesses (even large businesses) who need true groupware email, calendars, and contacts management.  Like Exchange, Kerio Connect provides an excellent webmail interface, and it also synchs with your Macs, PCs, and portable devices.  Kerio Connect is cross platform, and it can be ran from a server running Mac OS X Server, Windows Server, or Linux.  It’s very robust, and easy to manage.  New to Kerio Connect is a fully functional web based admin tool which will enable administrators to login from anywhere to repair issues.  [Read more about Kerio Connect]  Kerio Connect works great with Microsoft Entourage, and with Apple’s mail app.  It works very well with iCal, and Address Book through CalDav, and CardDav.   Kerio Connect can link to your server’s LDAP directory for authentication.  It has full support for both Active Directory (Windows), and Open Directory (Mac).  If your organization or business has a mix of Macs and Windows PCs, Kerio is a great solution to enable Mac users and Windows users to collaborate seamlessly.  Users can share their mail boxes, calendars, and contacts with other users, and provide others with read/write access when needed.

File sharing and web services

For businesses to be truly collaborative, all users need to be able to store and access the company’s files from a central location.  All Mac offices are no different.  Mac OS X Server provides an excellent solution for file sharing.  Administrators can manage access to the server’s resources from a simple server admin tool that can be installed on a laptop, or desktop Mac.  Like Windows Server, Mac OS X Server provides management options on the user, and group level, as well as on the machine level.  Mac OS X Server incorporates industry standard LDAP services which enables it to act as a primary domain controller for both Mac and Windows PCs.  Windows PCs can bind to the Mac server in the same way that they bind to Windows servers.  Mac OS X Server will also host home folders for various users whether they are using a desktop system, or a laptop.  Similar to Windows Server, Mac OS X Server can be configured to enforce password policies to allow administrators to mandate regular password changes, and create policies on the number of characters that end users must use in their passwords.  Mac OS X Server provides file sharing access through Apple File Protocol (AFP), Windows sharing (SMB), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Network File System (NFS).

Mac OS X Server uses industry standard Apache, an open source foundation for web services. WebDav, also included in Mac OS X Server, enables collaborative web publishing for your organization.  Mac OS X Server includes fast and easy publishing of wikis and blogs.  Even a small businesses with no I.T. staff can easily have a full featured company blog running on Mac OS X Server.

Making the switch

Making the switch to Mac isn’t as difficult as it might seem.  In addition to the almost 300 Apple Stores worldwide ready to assist you, there are thousands of Apple Consultants all over the U.S., and in many other countries.  An Apple Consultant is an experienced independent contractor who is Apple certified.  Their services and skills range from providing basic desktop support for homes, and small businesses to setting up and deploying servers, and large scale networks.  Apple Consultants can help your organization build a plan to make the transition as easy and painless as possible.  They enjoy challenges, and they’re always willing to go the extra mile to build the right solution for their customers.

If you are located in Dallas/Fort Worth, contact Kinetic Technology Group to assist with your Windows to Mac transition.  We have the knowledge, the skills, and the creativity to make your transition a success.

Beta 3 of Kerio Connect 7 (renamed from Kerio Mail Server) from Kerio Technologies, Inc. now supports CardDav.  Snow Leopard users can now rejoice that fully native contacts synching is on the way.

When Snow Leopard released on August 28th, Kerio Mail Server was not fully compatible with Snow Leopard.  I have always enthusiastically upgraded to the latest version of Mac OS X on the date of the release, so when I found out that KMS was not going to support Snow Leopard, that was a major drawback.  Although email was unaffected, Kerio Mail Server was not compatible with the new version of iCal in Snow Leopard.  Anyone who upgraded to Snow Leopard found out afterward that their Kerio hosted calendar was read only in iCal, and could not be managed in iCal.  Users needed to either modify their calendar from webmail, or use another device such as their iPhone.  Kerio followed up with an update (6.7.2) less than a month later.  The update fixed the compatibility issue with iCal.  With Snow Leopard, Apple introduced CardDav into Address Book.  Along with CardDav, Apple also added an updated native Exchange synching feature in Address Book.  This broke the ability for Address Book to synch with Kerio Mail Server through ‘Exchange’ synching.  Snow Leopard users would need to use the Kerio Sync Connector instead, which is a separate add-on that needs to be installed, and later, manually updated each time that there is a Kerio Mail Server update.  Kerio Sync Connector will synchronize the user’s contacts and  calendars with the Kerio server automatically.  Calendar synching can also be handled through CalDav instead of using the Kerio Sync Connector.   Computer geeks like myself don’t have a problem with updating software on a regular basis.  However, non-savvy users will often put off downloading updates, which over time, will lead to synchronization problems.

My goal as a Kerio Mail Server administrator has always been to use a deployment solution that does not require the end user to download and install an update each time that Kerio Mail Server is updated.  This is why I try not to use the Kerio Sync Connector, and instead, use the native ‘Exchange’ synching in Address Book for Macs running Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard), or earlier.  For Macs running Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), the Kerio Sync Connector has been the best way to synch contacts with the server.  With the release of Kerio Connect 7 beta 3,  Kerio has introduced native CardDav synching into their product.  This will eliminate the need to use a separate add-on.  Contacts will stay synchronized as long as the computer is connected to the network.

Although Apple has made a huge improvement in Exchange support for the Mac, Kerio Mail Server remains to be the best solution for small and medium businesses who need groupware features such as server hosted shared contacts, and calendars.  Kerio Mail Server supports all three of the major computing platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux).  My own email host, Get Sync’d, is using Kerio Mail Server to provide their customers with business class email service.  In mixed computing environments, Mac users and Windows users can collaborate seamlessly.  Often Mac users are made to live with little to no collaborative features when using email that is hosted an Exchange server.  This is due in part to the I.T. staff not knowing how to properly setup Exchange on the Mac, but also because Macs have lacked the native ability to tap into all of the features of Exchange.  Apple has brought native Exchange compatibility to the Mac, but only for Exchange 2007.  Kerio Mail Server brings all of the collaborative features of Exchange to the Mac with an easier setup process, and at a lower overall cost.  Kerio Mail Server is perfect for small and medium businesses since the cost of setting up an in house mail server running Kerio Mail Server is considerably less than deploying Exchange.  If your business does not need an in house mail server, Kerio hosting providers such as Rocket Fast, and  Get Sync’d are a great choice.  These providers can take the headache out of managing your email, and free you to concentrate on growing your business.  If you’re a home user, and you own your own domain name, having your email hosted by a Kerio hosting provider is a great way to maintain your email address even when you’re switching from one Internet service provider to another.  You won’t have to give up your email address just because you’ve grown tired of your ISP.

If you have a server available to use for testing, I suggest that you download, and check out Kerio Mail Server, or the new Kerio Connect beta.  Kerio allows a limited time test drive of Kerio Mail Server.  You will love the fast, and easy setup (2 minute install), and the ease of administration.  Kerio Mail Server has full support for Open Directory, and Active Directory.  It runs on Mac OS X Server, Windows Server, and Linux.  You can even run Kerio Mail Server on client versions of Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux, but you won’t have the ability to tap into Open Directory and Active Directory.  As with any beta, Kerio Connect should not be deployed on a production server.