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October 20, 2008Mac vs. Vista: Which is better for business? Part 5: Usability, compatibility, and integrationPCs running Windows Vista tend to be an easier fit with corporate IT environments than Macs.By Sandra GittlenBusinesses today rely on a wide range of disparate applications, and tying them all together is key to keeping employees productive. Many experts say IT executives are more likely to get that kind of enterprise integration and usability with Windows Vista than with a Mac. “On corporate networks, which are predominately Windows-based, you have to be able to tap into Active Directory and Exchange [Server],” notes Ryan McCune, solutions director at IT consultancy Avanade Inc., a Seattle-based joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture. Macs, unfortunately, don’t integrate as seamlessly with those Microsoft-based technologies as Vista does, McCune argues. He adds that IT executives evaluating Macs should also determine whether the Apple platform supports all of the software that users need to do their jobs. “Many organizations have large investments in strategic, custom-developed applications as well as off-the-shelf business applications that are very Windows-centric,” McCune says. Joanne Kossuth, CIO at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass., agrees, noting that one reason Windows currently wins out in her environment is that it integrates well with widely used legacy engineering systems. “The engineering applications either haven’t been adapted to run or run poorly in the Mac environment,” she says. Finally, be sure to consider usability when weighing a move to Macs. Apple’s computers are famously easy to use. But if your environment is mostly Windows-based and you decide to include Macs, you’ll have to retrain some users and add ongoing help desk support. In addition, you might see an initial dip in productivity as users adjust to the new platform. For its part, Microsoft has built numerous new features into Vista to improve its usability, such as real-time search. “Everything in Vista is tighter and much more powerful,” says Bill Bernius, chief architect at systems management firm Eden Technologies Inc. in New York. That’s one reason businesses appear to be sticking with Windows in the final analysis despite the temptation of switching to Macs. Sandra Gittlen is a freelance technology editor in the greater Boston area. Other articles in this series: |
