The Apple Macintosh hardware and the Mac OS X operating system are gaining significant momentum among corporate users, according to a Yankee Group report released on Monday.

The Yankee Group report, published by analyst Laura DiDio, surveyed 750 IT administrators and C-level executives worldwide. She found that about 80 percent of businesses have Macs and OS X installed. While the percentage remains small, a key finding was that "adoption and acceptance of Mac hardware and operating system software are growing at a steady and sustained pace not seen since the late 1980s," according to the author.

The report went on to say that, "use of Apple products in a corporate environment is much more pervasive and complex than previously thought. Nearly one-quarter, or close to 25%, of the survey respondents have a significant number -- greater than 30 or 50 -- of Apple Macs and OS X 10.x OS software present in their corporate networks."

Apple technologies cited as fueling the growth were: Safari, iChat, FileVault and Time Machine.

The full report is for sale to Yankee Group corporate clients.