What the Xserve EOL means to us...

By axing the Xserve, Apple is pulling the rug out from under many people.

I have an Xserve, but I was actually considering purchasing more Mac Minis. However, due to Apples erratic treatment of Xserve admins, ALL of my future Apple purchases (including "iToys") are on hold.

What is to stop Apple from pulling the same stunt a year from now on the Mac Mini and Mac OS X Server?

I know Apple likes to play their cards close to the vest regarding future products, but I need at least some predictability regarding the tools I use in my business.

I just thought of something with respect to this nightmare. Apple has just handed all their competitors in all professional fields a free marketing and PR too to use against Apple, be it in terms of the serves, the clients or even Apple's iProducts: Apple can not be relied upon.

I'm pretty sure that Microsoft can use this very effectively in an ad campaign for why enterprise customers should not go with Apple iPhones because with Apple there's no guarantee that the iPhone the company's using will even work next year or next month.

Peter Clarke wrote:
Once the dust settles on this, we MIGHT find that we end up with OS X Server, capable of running on a MUCH WIDER range of server systems – But these would clearly not be Apple Servers
But instead perhaps HP, IBM, etc – So we could perhaps end up with a choice of maybe 20 or 30 different types of server hardware to choose from – instead of just one… ??

Also if Apple is really going down that route, it's likely (hopeful?) that the new 'Mac OS X Server 10.7'
might be fully virtualizable – under VMWare ESX for instance

That is my thinking as well. Maybe it will be the same route that Apple took with their Xserve RAID and partner with some vendor to run Mac OS X Server on the vendor's server hardware.

We have to wait and see... 11 weeks more...

Well if we kick up a fuss – I am hoping they might tell us sooner… Perhaps…

Otherwise we will have to come to our own conclusions…

Unfortunately his whole thing has been handled badly – a PR disaster for Apple Enterprise for a start…
This has left us wondering on Apples Direction…

While I am sure that Xserves made few sales, the repercussions go far beyond that…
Not just in "Leveraging" of OS X Server, but in terms of support for all Apple Devices and software…

There are all sorts of alternative courses of action on handling this…
And much better ways that Apple could have handled this situation…

I think Apple needs to start communicating clearly on this now ASAP…
Before yet more damage is done…

There's also is a similar discussion going on: – On the XSanity website:

http://www.xsanity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10953

Theo, I agree with your assessment, as much as it saddens me to face the demise of an Apple business architecture as we know it. Our organization has spent many years building a model of compatibility between Windows- and Mac-based processes. For a brief time we thought we saw the light at the end of this long tunnel. Now, like many others, we are forced to start planning, budgeting, and building all over again.

Apple has dealt quite a blow to many businesses with this decision.

** ...it means we have been stabbed in the back. **

I agree wholeheartedly. I work in higher education. This is worse than the sudden dropping of the Xserve RAID product line two years ago and from the posts I am reading a lot of people feel the same way. I work in a school that teaches Graphic Design and Multimedia, and we are about 75 per cent Mac based. This announcement is going to push that number much lower and perhaps to zero over the long term. Incredibly short-sighted. What was Steve Jobs thinking? Costs too much, get rid of it? I guess it is time to get my Windows certifications so I can be employed in the future...