When discussing OS X Server, which is now an app you add to the standard install of Mountain Lion, ars technica picked up on some excellent points on how it can move forward.
There’s still some good, low-hanging fruit that Apple could harvest to make OS X Server better for the kinds of users they’re gunning for—things like centralized FileVault management, the ability to patch iOS with the Software Update service, and local iOS device backups. If the software goes into maintenance mode, I worry that we’ll never see server features that keep pace with the features in the OS X client.
The fear is that Server tools become much like Remote Desktop, which has only had incremental updates in 2006.
I work in a business that relies on using OS X Server to deploy solutions. Having Server degrade over time would be tragic because we would have to find other solutions outside of Apple’s ecosystem, which is not fun and not a good testament to Apple’s software offering to business. Being able to manage, deploy, update and maintain devices from an Apple server is a great thing to be able to do. But it needs major improvement. If Apple are serious about business, they need to be serious about that little blue app icon.
