iPods in the enterprise

If you were asked to name the device that has caused corporate executives to consider replacing their Windows-based PCs with Apple computers, you’d naturally figure it was the iPhone that got its nose under the enterprise tent.

But, you’d be wrong and you’d also probably be wrong about who in the enterprise is driving the change. The device is the iPod and the driver is the business owner who got hooked on the technology listening to music at his or her desk. And, with the remarkable success of the iPhone, the move to Apple has become all the more compelling for business users.

Such is the unintended consequences of a major shift towards ease of use and integration of devices among consumer and business technology. The announcement this week that Active Storage is going to be out-Apple-ing Apple with its storage products has the potential to complete the circle for business users.

As the only reseller of Active Storage products, we’re going to sell Active’s products, but we also expect to sell more Apple servers, as companies finally give in to the siren call of Apple. Active Storage’s XRAID products offer the kind of reliability and speed that knocks down one of the last barriers to Apple in the enterprise. (It also doesn’t hurt that business users have uniformly turned their noses up at Vista, a real dog of an operating system).