Apple: In Pursuit Of The Enterprise Customer

In a somewhat quiet fashion, Apple Computer has stepped up its pursuit of the enterprise networking market, with the introductions of new blade servers and RAID storage gear at last week's Macworld Expo show. At the event, we caught up with senior consulting engineer Tom Weyer, who is one of the company's top resources in the enterprise-gear arena.

Networking Pipeline: It seems like there's enterprise announcements from Apple at the show, but they're kind of muted, compared to the iPod stuff. Is it hard to get mindshare for networking equipment at Apple?

Tom Weyer: I wouldn't say that. I think we've seen a lot of good press about the announcements, some from magazines that aren't the typical Mac faithful. It's sort of the undiscovered rock, and it has value. People like that.

Networking Pipeline: But does the enterprise networking customer respond?

Weyer: The IS community is a very, very conservative community. It takes them time to move, because they are cautious, and that makes sense -- they've got a lot at risk. What they do is hard to do, and it's hard to do right. And there's a huge downside to getting it wrong.Networking Pipeline: Does Apple offer any consulting for installing networking gear?

Weyer: There are groups within Apple that are focused on that space for the business side. I work with educational institutions. Is Apple doing anything to attack that space? Yes, on both sides.

Networking Pipeline: According to your presentation, Apple offers good value on servers and RAID devices. Is it hard to overcome the perception from the PC world, where customers expect to pay a premium for Apple gear?

Weyer: People are looking for compelling value in not so much the cost of the product, but in what does it cost to deploy it. Anyone in the enterprise space who looks at products looks at [both] the cost of the product, and what are the costs to service it. If they're not, they're making a mistake. I think that's one of the places where we're getting more attention.