Mid-Size Pentagon Technologies Group:Macs Are the Rule, Not The Exception

S mall to medium size business owners, you might want to take a look at this: InternetWeek.com has posted an interesting article about a company whose primary computing platform is now, and most like will always be, Mac based, and they couldnit be happier. In the article; Why Mid-Size Company Is Sticking By The Mac, author Antone Gonsalves offers a profile of PentagonTechnologies Group, a precision equipment servicing company where 90% of the computers used are from Apple. From the article:

One reason Pentagon is unlikely to switch from Appleis Mac OS X platform is Linux, the open source operating system that has evolved into a meaningful competitive threat to Microsoft Windows.

Since late last year, Pentagon has been testing and deploying Linux to see if the free OS could be used as a backup to OS X. Today, about 10 percent of the companyis data processing is done by applications running on Linux and the MySQL open source database.

"Itis not an incredibly huge step because MySQL would run on the OS X server in just the same way," said Ross Lindell, chief information officer for Pentagon. "(OS X and Linux) are similar enough that we could leap either way. Windows, however, is much different and would require skills in Active Directory and other technologies weire not familiar with."

Because OS X and Linux are both variants of Unix, Pentagonis programmers have had little difficulty understanding the open-source software, Lindell said. In addition, Linux doesnit require signing any expensive software licenses. Pentagon obtained the OS from Red Hat Inc., which makes its money providing service around open source software.

The full article is a good read for anyone considering the benefits of using Macs in a business environment.