Opinion: Will OS X Lion roar in the enterprise?
So far there's been a lot of focus on Lion's new features. But what about the updated version of Mac OS X in the workplace? Computerworld's Ryan Faas takes a look at how Mac OS X Lion will impact companies that have an installed base …
Context & Ripple Effects
Lion arrived in July 2011 after a long runway: Apple gave hands-on previews as early as February, build chatter pointed to an imminent golden master ahead of WWDC, and Ars Technica's deep technical review landed just two weeks before release. The consumer-feature story has been told; Computerworld's Ryan Faas now turns to the question those reviews left open — what Lion means inside companies already running Macs.
First-order effects
- Enterprises with installed Mac bases face an immediate evaluation decision: whether Lion's changes justify upgrading managed fleets or warrant deferring until IT testing and deployment tools catch up.
- Apple's early outreach matters here — the company shared Lion with security experts before launch, giving enterprise security teams advance material to assess the release against.
Second-order effects
- Management-oriented additions like Find My Mac push device-tracking expectations onto corporate fleets, raising the bar for third-party Mac management vendors whose products overlap with built-in features.
- If Lion lowers friction for mixed Windows/Mac workplaces, competitors' desktop platforms face pressure to match consumer-grade conveniences on managed machines.
Third-order effects
- Each release that treats the Mac as a manageable corporate endpoint rather than a consumer machine moves Apple from tolerated exception toward standard issue in enterprise hardware purchasing.
- Pre-release security briefings of the kind Apple ran for Lion could become routine vendor practice, tightening the window between public launch and enterprise readiness.
The trend: Mac OS X releases are shifting from consumer-first upgrades toward platforms judged by their enterprise manageability, with security pre-briefings and built-in device tools as the new yardsticks.