Are Windows Servers Less Expensive?
There is a lingering mythology about Macs being expensive and Windows PCs being more affordable – which is easily debunked if you look at the specs of a new Mac vs. a Dell & compare all the software included with OS X. This extends into the realm of servers as well. Have a look at this great chart from AppleInsider comparing the cost of a Windows Server with an OS X Server.
5 responses so far
Michael
Elizabeth Housley
That’s more than just a small difference! What if you also include differing costs of warranty and support packages? I think it becomes even more striking.
Great point Joe – Another one I would add is ease of use. It’s a cost that many IT departments don’t consider. Not to put myself out of a job, but anyone who is really familiar with a Mac can learn to use OS X Server with a little reading and fiddling.
And it does what you need it to do without having to purchase lots of plug-ins and add-ons. Password reset? Built in. Print quota management? Built in. Calendaring, Addressing, iPHone support, Wikis, Video Streaming? All built in. Granted, Apple is using some silly proprietary wiki, but underneath it’s a Unix server, so you can install whatever you want, WordPress, Media Wiki, etc. and when there is a server issue, you can manage it yourself from your Mac.
It’s amazing how often technology is withheld from users because the support staff in IT departments don’t know how to use it – and that’s a cost to the user community that’s often ignored.
I hope this isn’t too off-topic: Institutional cost accounting often incentivizes false economies, especially, imho, in IT hardware and software. I first noticed this in the early 1990s when visiting the large, open trading floors of privately-owned hedge funds in midtown Manhattan. Their IT hardware deployment stacked scores of traders’ desks with eighteen or more *crt* monitors on *each* desk. Because IT tracked and reported kilowatt hour consumption, such hedge funds were quick to switch over to the new lcd monitors. The hedge funds did this despite the popular moaning and hand-wringing over the “expensive” purchase price of the new lcd monitors: they calculated *to* *the* *day* when they’d recover their purchase price and begin saving on electricity costs.
The hedge funds, with their clearer understanding of the costs of doing business, were so distinct from such institutions as, for example, large hospital chains. Such chains have tens of thousands of monitors scattered about, and were literally a decade and more slower in replacing the crt monitors that hogged so much electricity. At the time, IT only reported purchase prices, and never installation costs, never operating costs.
Walter – fascinating perspective! Thank you for sharing!