• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Application Containment in the Post-PC Era

    I had a very interesting debate with someone the other day. The debate was around the Total Cost of Ownership of an app on a desktop computer. Let’s say that you have a $5 app. Now let’s say that in order to package that app up and test it for end user deployment, that the cost to your organization is about $400. That’s going to seem high if you just look at it as a number. But when you consider that it takes time to customize an app package so that end user data is preserved and end users aren’t prompted a dozen times, then it takes time to test…

  • Business

    The TCO of Virtualization

    It starts innocently enough: you start running virtual machines (VMs) for testing.  Then you slowly get hooked.  The next thing you start to do is put your VMs into production.  Then you start buying only servers that have hypervisor built in.  Then you start looking at SANs to leverage virtual clusters and virtualize your volumes.  The next thing you know, you’re looking on vmware.com for a new virtual dog and banging your head on the keyboard when you can’t find one.  At this point there are 8 VMs running on every laptop and handheld in your organization, there are sometimes 3 different applications running VMs on one host and often…