Q: A Sad day.. Xserve discontinued...

Has anyone stopped to think about how this situation potentially fits into Apples massive marketing strategy? I work for an educational institution who is actively reviewing Apple as a notebook platform for use in the future. Regardless of the advantages of the different platforms (another discussion), the hesitation I have had all along is the unpredictability of the Apple "machine."

This forum post, and many others, are full of people discussing the need for OSX Server virtualization on non-Apple hardware. Now, think about this. If you're a company already planning on allowing OSX Server virtualization why not creating an opportunity to be the hero? Obviously, existing customers are significantly upset in regards to the Xserve decision, Apple IT managers are already sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for a better option from Apple and now there is an open letter drawing massive attention to the "Apple in the enterprise discussion." Now, if I were a marketing manager I would say that is a perfect opportunity to have a dog and pony show about the "innovation" that Apple will bring to the industry with OSX Server virtualization.

Like everyone has said, I guess we will have to wait and see what Apple does. I can tell you, from my standpoint, as an IT director I am trying to be open with a non-biased product review. As the person responsible for a sustainable, open and integrated IT environment, that it is critical that I have information available to make decisions. I'm really struggling to support Apple's style of product releases.

The only marketing I can see is a lion jumping a shark.

Just my opinion.

I don't see them producing a new server if the old one is being dropped for poor sales. I don't see Apple pulling off the success they have had with the iPhone in the server world.

If OS X server is to survive in the xserve/"Enterprise" space, I think it has to be allowed to run in ESX. The OS X server appliance......

However, if they allow ESX, what are they going to do to support Windows 7 / 2008 R2 authentication with the current situation with Samba (GPLv3) ? Maybe only 4 of us care.

I suspect they won't bother and just concentrate on providing OS X Server as a workgroup server solution for people with a small number of Macs, using a Mini or a Mac Pro.

I think we will see changes in Lion (client) that will improve integration with existing Enterprise backend - Windows Server, Redhat and Solaris for example. I imagine they will be working on the iPhone and iPad in the same way. Then they can sell all their products into the Enterprise without anyone having to change their infrastructure or purchase Apple servers. This would mean selling a lot more iMacs, iPads and iPhones.

Additionally, better integration would ease the pain for the all Mac houses that use xserves, making it easier to transition to another server platform. At the end of the day they are making money out of selling their consumer grade hardware, not the xserve.

Then again, Jobs may soon offer a cloud based solution for xserve users to migrate to, great if you have insane bandwidth.

I guess time will tell.

I'm pretty sure of two points in your post:
a) if Apple were going to license OSX Server for ESX they would have done it already, and
b) Apple will almost certainly be offering more cloud services to improve on its currently spotty mobileme service. Possibly they will introduce cloud based storage etc, but unless you're willing to trust your data with Apple, a company who will willingly kill a mission critical product with 2 months notice and have very good bandwidth, you're facing the prospect of getting burned by them again in a couple of years if the service fails to succeed.

I just don't want to have to go through this again soon.

Might be time to simply roll a Linux distro specially made for serving Macs.

I think you are spot-on with this post (but you are dead-wrong on some "enterprise in the cloud solution"--Jobs has said in many different ways Apple is a consumer company, that means that that new datacenter is to support consumer products and/or provide consumer services, period), only the uproar over the termination may in fact cause Apple to go down a virtualization path (of course they've thought about it--they're a huge corporation with thousands of engineers). But if Apple did go that route I don't really see them focusing their efforts on developing OS X Server as an enterprise product--it would just be a temporary appeasement to people's fury over this. I completely agree that it will be intended only as a workgroup server solution--as it quite obviously already is given the hardware options in the transition document. This has grim implications for some services like Podcast Producer and Xgrid, which are enterprise-type solutions. While they may stick around in a virtualized server environment, how much more effort is Apple really going to put into developing them? Those product teams may be dedicated, but if they don't have executive-level support...well, I'm not going to just cross my fingers and invest tons of money into something like Podcast Producer at this point.

Client will definitely be better integrated with Windows servers, mostly negating the need for OS X Server. That's already happening. Just yesterday 10.6.5 was released with better AD support and better Exchange support. On that note, I wouldn't be at all surprised to eventually see some DNS fix for the silly DNS-updating issues OS X clients have on Windows Server networks.

Despite the better Windows Server integration piece I think Apple will continue to build into OS X, I wonder how this will affect Mac client sales in the enterprise going forward. I know there is no way I will be able to convince the college I work for to ever by an OS X product again after this, not that I'd even want to after this. Enterprise customers aren't going to invest millions of dollars into a product produced by a company that has proven itself untrustworthy in the manner that Apple has just done. Of course, we're still going to be buying iPhones and iPads .

Message was edited by: Kevin Smith4

Message was edited by: Kevin Smith4

My jaw surely hit the floor on this one. As Mac admin, I had just spent the last several months justifying to my organization why we should upgrade our XServes instead of tagging designers' data onto a pre-existing Windows infrastructure using SMB , DFS and Thursby or AFP and ExtremeZ-IP. Literally the DAY AFTER the decision was made in favor of Apple servers, they pull the plug.

My guess is that Apple is making more money off iToys than XServes, so I expect the next announcement will be to drop Mac OS in favor of iOS. Then it will be "MacPro... available until ....." Can you picture that ? Will Apple think twice ?

Fellow Mac Server Admins, our days are numbered... If we want to be server admins, we have to branch out to other platforms. That's what I plan to do.

My department has about 60 Xserves for video transcoding. Years ago we were basically laughed at for going with Apple, but to this day we're breaking the mold on how a video department functions in a digital world. We are Mac optimized, ground-breaking and cost effective.

The first big blow was the removal of Xserve RAID. It hurt but we moved on and we found better solutions.

Next Xserve. It is a stab in the back to remove this product from the lineup. My trust is broken and there is no way we're racking up MacPros in earthquake country without a mounting kit, LOM, hot swappable parts and a monstrous waste of valuable space. An order we had for 20 new Xserves will instead be replaced with HP servers. Our business will now go elsewhere.

The long tail of this is I'm now considering dropping Final Cut Pro for Avid. My department with well over 1M in Apple products can all go PC. It's a shame really as I've been a Mac fan since my first Mac 512Ke in 1985. I've been through every Apple down turn, the clone years, everything. No more, I've had it. Dropping the Xserve saying a MacPro is faster and more suitable is about as smart as saying you can drop the iPod lineup because a MacBook Pro can play music, is faster and has more storage.

Bad move Apple. Break my trust. Break my spirit. In the end this will probably hurt you more than me.

For the sake of all that is right and sensible with the universe, I hope that Apple has a replacement in the wings. If not then all the forward-thinking that has drawn us to Apple in the first place will be wasted on consumer toys, and we'll be thrown back in time with that other lethargic dinosaur OS.

Save the Xserve http://www.savethexserve.com/

Steve,

No answer to all these posts is a bad answer.
Please do something.

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A parody to save the XServe, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kKerSnyIZw

I wonder what apple uses for its new data centers.

Apple will be loosing customers from here on. This decision will affect the other products. Xserve may not be a best selling product for apple, but it is certainly the best supporting product for apple.This is really a bad move by apple. I am hurt and disappointed. They hit on my trust.

Now I understand why steve was fired from apple long back.

Apple pulls out of the business "enterprise" market without warnings, apologies, or alternatives.

But hey, we got "The Beatles" in the iTunes Store so it's all good.

Bah!

Maybe if they spent half the time it took to negotiate the beatles deal, and put it towards marketing the xserve we wouldn't be in this mess. Thanks for the continued silence and unacceptable migration path Steve. How bout giving all the IT directors, and CTO's who convinced their companies to spend millions of dollars on your infrastructure jobs after they get fired for wasting their budgets. Or how about using that cash horde for an unemployment fund? Perhaps when my boss asks me why we have our entire budget wrapped up in a platform that may or may not exist in a few years i'll say, don't worry, apple wasn't selling that many it's all good. This is complete BS Steve, i completely respect you and what you have done for us, but come on.