Enterprise Desktop Alliance designed to ease Mac integration into Windows environments
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jun 30, 2008 at 8:52am
A group of enterprise-class software developers have launched a new organization to help IT departments integrate Macs into the corporate environment. The group—The Enterprise Desktop Alliance (EDA)— is offering resources for IT staff to help them identify and solve the real pain points and clarify some misconceptions.
At the same time, the EDA will promote interoperability of business-critical enterprise solutions that are platform-friendly for both Mac and Windows environments and organized for central IT management. The goal is to help IT manage both Mac and Windows machines from the same platform while, perhaps most importantly, letting Macs be Macs. Recently, Mcsimum News interviewed two of the founders of EMI: Dave McNelly of Centrify and Peter Frankl of LANrev
“Our goal is to confront the misconceptions and to promote the availability of solutions that enable management of the Mac from Windows,” McNelly says. “Our vision is for a straightforward integration of systems, where the merits of the platform, and not issues of manageability, determine desktop choice. EDA will enable cross-platform environments where people can leverage their established Windows expertise, infrastructure, and technology to manage Macs as peers on the network.
In addition to Centrify and LANrev, the founding members of EDA are Atempo, GroupLogic and Parallels. The organization says that Macs are perceived as: significantly more expensive to own; difficult to control, make secure, and bring into compliance; unable to support essential applications; need separate hardware and Mac-only software for identity & client management, file services, backup, etc.; and require special expertise to administer them However, Macs are also recognized as having special advantages that can translate into increased productivity.
“We enable IT professionals to deploy, integrate and manage Macs throughout their organization,” Frankl says. “Using EDA solutions they can apply the same standard Windows-based management tools and leverage an established centralized management platform.”
The goal is to deliver to Macs and Windows the same: standards of service; uniform client configuration; security controls; sharepoints and print queue; disaster recovery; compliance policies; security; and data protection. McNelly says that all EDA member solutions: deliver Mac-Windows integration; further the ability to administer the Mac from a Windows-based management environment; foster cross-platform productivity; extend the established Windows infrastructure; and leverage skills already possessed by the Windows IT administrator.
EDA solutions increase security by putting Macs under standard controls and policies, he adds. They reduce costs through centralized administration, cut back on training overhead, minimize helpdesk calls, and improve the end-user experience by relieving the user of “self management.”
“EDA solutions also enhance Mac user productivity by providing access to standard Windows-based desktop apps and expedite cross-platform file and print sharing,” McNelly says. “They also streamline Mac access to Windows only apps.”
What does it mean to “let Macs be Macs,” part of the EDA goal?
“It means that Mac users enjoy the full Mac experience without compromise and are unaware they are in a Windows infrastructure,” Frankl says. “We want to improve the experience by delivering improved system performance, a single sign-on, transparent updates and patch management and file or system recovery without administrator intervention. We also want to allow Mac users streamlined access to Windows-only apps and productivity tools.”
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
