IBM is set to become Apple’s largest corporate client ever, and now that Cupertino’s old rival is finally embracing Macs and iPhones, Big Blue is ready to help other businesses switch to Macs as well.
In order to help its corporate clients switch over to Macs quickly, IBM announced today that it now offers cloud-based IT services that will help business integrate Macs with their enterprise systems and applications.
After shunning Macs for decades, IBM expects to purchase up to 200,000 Macs by the end of the year for its employees, and the company has learned a thing or two about making a massive switch from PCs to OS X. Now it wants to help other businesses incorporate Macs into their existing IT infrastructures with the newly announced IBM MobileFirst Managed Mobility Services program.
While PC sales have been shrinking, the Mac has defied market trends by outgrowing the PC industry every year for the last decade. Now that more and more businesses are ready to switch to Apple products, properly integrating them at a massive scale can be a challenge.
IBM’s new service allows clients to order Macs and have them delivered directly to employees without the need for additional setup, imaging or configuration. This will save companies time, reduce costs and create a better employee experience thanks to Macs that just work straight out of the box. The service can also support personally owned Macs in bring-your-own-device work environments.
A variety of IBM clients have already been offered these services on a custom basis, but IBM is now offering them as standard. In addition to helping businesses deploy new Macs, IBM’s services can also help you manage ongoing support for old Macs, by providing OS and image management, software application management, automatic compliance and configuration updates, and more.
