Mac OS X and Apple services support secure, timely news and information.

The Star Tribune Company, a news and information organization serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, is owned by the McClatchy Company of Sacramento, California. The Star Tribune newspaper is one of the top 20 largest newspapers in the nation and is read by 1.5 million people each week.

A complex multiplatform IT network, including more than 300 HP, Sun, and Apple servers, supports more than 2000 desktops that are 15 percent Mac and 85 percent Windows. In addition to supporting the Star Tribune’s daily newspaper production, the IT system is connected to the McClatchy network, which shares information among 12 daily and 17 community newspapers across the country.

Production requirements had outgrown the Star Tribune’s IT system. File sharing between platforms required multiple passwords, and compatibility between different operating systems was cumbersome. IT administrators needed to access and service desktop platforms separately for software updates and network repairs. The Star Tribune contacted its local Apple Specialist, FirstTech, which directed the company to products from Apple for a compatible, reliable, and secure IT solution. After careful testing and pilot installations, the Star Tribune chose Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, and Xserve, with support from AppleCare Premium Services.

A network that plays together

The Star Tribune migrated to the standards-based Mac OS X for an interoperable system to support multiple platforms and mobile devices. Designed to seamlessly integrate into existing enterprises, Mac OS X allows both Mac and PC users to log in to Active Directory using their designated name and password, instead of having different passwords for each directory. The Star Tribune administrators can maintain Mac OS X user information in Active Directory and authenticate Mac OS X users without expensive additional software or directory reconfigurations.

“When you have multiple directories that you’re trying to validate over the LAN, it’s a huge technical challenge to provide each one with permission for documentation. It also creates a security problem,” says Greg Priglmeier, systems engineer, IT Server Group for the Star Tribune. “The ability to integrate with Active Directory is provided by Mac OS X.”

Because the McClatchy network is headquartered in California, the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune needs easy access to resources on the West Coast. Additionally, McClatchy has an Internet subsidiary, McClatchy Interactive, that provides both content and business support for interactive media operations nationwide, which must also be accessible to Star Tribune staff. To stay internally connected, the Star Tribune needs a high level of connectivity from its IT network.

“Our staff needs the ability to access hundreds of servers. With Mac OS X integrated into Active Directory, everyone can easily log in to the internal network and the McClatchy network, no matter what platform they’re on or what office they’re at or what story they are covering,” explains Priglmeier. “It’s given us much more flexibility.”

A streaming line of features

Instrumental to the IT system’s flexibility is the powerful Mac OS X Server with a suite of features to meet the Star Tribune’s IT needs. Using Workgroup Manager in Mac OS X Server allows the Star Tribune to centrally manage users, groups, and computers across its organization. Creating a standardized desktop, preferences, and password policies streamlines IT administration. “We no longer have to manage our desktop security and authentication in batches — the PCs over here, the Macs over there,” explains Priglmeier.