That said, many of the technologies in Leopard Server are enterprise-worthy. While climbing some learning curve may be required to move to Mac OS X Server, the platform should not be immediately discounted. The technologies that it employs are robust and often very well-designed with a solid basis in open standards and open-source systems. This open-source architecture makes Mac OS X Server much more flexible because experienced engineers can easily expand on Apple products.

Finally, as Apple gains more traction in the desktop market, Macs are appearing in greater numbers in both new and traditional Apple-friendly markets including education. Several universities, including Princeton and Cornell reported an record increase of Macs this semester.

In addition, Apple's share of computers connected to the Internet climbed to a new record in September, with about 6.6% of all those online running Mac OS X, according to a recent report from Net Applications. And for the quarter ended September 29, Apple reported that Macintosh sales were up by 34% over the same quarter last year, breaking its old record by 400,000 machines.

If this trend increases or even just continues, the need to support these users will become a greater requirement in shops of all sizes. Given the added possibilities that Mac OS X Server offers beyond simple client management, it is worth consideration in many organizations, ranging from small businesses to enterprise networks.