With the release of iWork '08, the new iMacs, new hardware RAID options for the Xserve and Mac Pros, updated Airport Extreme base stations, and bumps to the Mac Mini, the billion-dollar question, "Is Apple ready for the enterprise?" is again in play.

Here's my opinionated, and multilayered, take on the issue, from my perspective as an IT person, working within the SMB market.

Apple Has No Interest In Large Enterprises

Let's be honest, "the enterprise" as it pertains to computing is such an abused term that oftentimes it has whatever meaning its user wishes to give it. For the purposes of this article, I'll define it as any company or commercial organization with more than 1,000 computers, not including servers.

By that definition, a company in the SMB market becomes one with less than 1,000 computers, not including servers. I exclude servers, because unlike desktop computers, you can't make any kind of judgment about the overall size of a company based on server counts, as that is wildly variable based on need. I'm also not going to include .edu in that definition, as while the K-12 and higher education range includes organizations that superficially resemble both SMB and enterprise companies, they operate under a different set of needs and rules, and so don't really apply here.

With that in mind, I'll say again that Apple has no interest in large enterprises, but add to it ...as a goal unto itself." In other words, if GE wanted to buy 50,000 iMacs tomorrow, Apple certainly wouldn't say no, and would bend over beyond backwards to make that order go smoothly. However, Apple isn't going to go out and do all the things that a similar company would have to do to make itself irresistible to a GE.

But not actively targeting large enterprises isn't the same as not wanting to get into businesses. It's more correct to say that Apple has a good understanding of its strengths and weaknesses, of the things it does well, and the things it's not good at. The upshot is, it now realizes that the enterprise is, for the most part, something that it's not good at.

That's not to say that Apple isn't able to fit into the enterprise. Things like Active Directory integration, SMB support, Kerberos, NTLMv2 support, and CAC support all are things that the enterprise likes. It's just that Apple isn't going to become an enterprise computing company, any more than it's going to start competing directly with the bottom feeders of the personal computer market. If Apple's stuff shows up in either of those markets, it's a bonus, but neither of those are major priorities for Apple, because neither of those are markets that Apple is designed to do well in.

So then, what is Apple interested in, besides its traditional areas of education, home, and arts? If you look at the company over the last few years, the answer is obvious: The SMB market.

Apple Has a Huge Interest In The SMB Market

When you get down into the SMB market, you see a set of wants and needs that fit Apple well. First, SMB companies typically have smaller IT departments. This means that they don't have an unlimited ability to deal with human-intensive solutions. There's not much room for fussing, fixing, or fidgeting. They need solutions that don't require months of training to properly understand. They need solutions that can go from box to operational in a short amount of time.