IT

Collaboration

Almost every day we use iChat between our Broomfield, Colorado, San Francisco, and Seattle offices. Removing that distance makes a big difference in helping remote employees feel more like a team. Bill Carroll, CTO, Quist Valuation

Workgroup collaboration. No additional charge.

Apple provides a rich set of collaboration services. For instance, iCal Server, a calendaring and scheduling service based on open standards, was the first commercial CalDAV calendar server. Based on the latest innovative technologies, Mac OS X Leopard Server equips businesses with the power of online collaboration through group calendaring, instant messaging, wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, and other features. All of these services are included at no extra charge with Mac OS X Server.

iCal Server

Appointments made easier.

The workgroup collaboration services you gain with Mac OS X Server start with robust group calendaring. With iCal Server, colleagues can propose and set up meetings and any conference rooms they need, quickly and easily. Once the location and time are set, the meeting organizer invites the right people and lets users include information such as agendas or to-do lists along with the invitation.

The calendaring and scheduling services in Mac OS X Leopard are based on open standards. iCal Server uses open calendaring protocols for integrating with leading calendar programs, including iCal 3 in Mac OS X and popular CalDAV clients from Mozilla, Open Source Application Foundation, and others. Support for open standards also extends to interchange formats such as iCalendar, iMIP, and iTIP.

iChat

Together in an instant.

With Mac OS X Server, it’s easy to harness the power of innovative, secure instant messaging (IM). iChat brings multi-way text, video, and audio conferencing directly to the desktop with stunning pictures and crystal-clear conversation. iChat works with AIM, the largest instant messaging community in the U.S. Users can be either AIM or MobileMe users and can text, audio, and video chat on a Mac or PC.

iChat Window

Organizations can host their own internal communication with iChat Server, included in Mac OS X Server. iChat Server is designed to be secure and integrate easily with your organization’s directory services for user account information and authentication. And, because text messages and file transfers are encrypted, information sent through your server is safeguarded and confidential.

iChat Server fits well into heterogeneous environments. It is based on Jabber, the industry-standard IM protocol also known as XMPP. This enables support for Mac computers using iChat, as well as for other Jabber clients running on Windows and Linux systems, PDAs, and cell phones.

iChat Server connects with other iChat Server systems and XMPP-compliant systems such as Google Talk using the server-to-server capabilities of the XMPP protocol. This allows users on iChat Server to exchange secure IMs with users on another network as long as both servers are accessible via the Internet. These server-to-server communication sessions can be encrypted using SSL/TLS with public key certificates, and you can configure iChat Server to block communication with servers that don’t support encryption.

Virtual meetings made easy.

With iChat in Mac OS X Server, users can request iChat Server to create and host a persistent chat room. Perfect for virtual team scenarios, project-specific discussions, and real-time updates, the chat room allows individuals to join at any time, leave when they need to — even log out and shut down — and come back to review all communications since the chat room opened.

Wiki

Wikis. Short and simple.

Wiki Server in Mac OS X Server makes it easy for groups to collaborate and communicate through their own wiki-powered intranet website, complete with group calendar, blog, mailing list, and even an RSS feed. Wikis are a collection of web pages designed to enable users to contribute or modify content. They assist users in the clear exchange of information, eliminating confusion and ensuring that all members of a project have access to the resources they need. Users can create and edit wiki pages, tag and cross-reference material, upload files and images, add comments, and search content with point-and-click ease.

Wiki Server allows you to create custom, project-specific websites. Select from 20 built-in themes with different colors, fonts, and layout styles. You can customize these templates with your own banner image and a custom sidebar title that displays pages with a user-defined tag at initial login. Once set up, it’s easy to add, delete, and edit content in whatever way makes sense.

IT Resources

White papers, Technical Overviews, Guides, and links to resources for the IT professional. Learn more

Leopard Server Evaluation

Leopard Box

If you think it takes a dedicated IT department to deploy and use a server, think again. Register to receive your free, fully functional evaluation copy of Mac OS X Server. Learn more

Online Seminars

Third-Party Products

Looking for additional products that complement your Apple solution? Here are just a few of the many solutions designed for the Mac from third-party developers.

Resources

The Move to Mobile Devices.

Corporate communication and collaboration used to be accomplished primarily on desktop systems, but that’s no longer the case. With platforms like iPhone, users have a rich viewing experience for email, and the attachments that come with it. They can also accept or decline meeting invitations once they log on, see who’s attending, review agendas, or add alerts. In addition, users have access to key tools like contacts and in-house applications to promote collaboration within your business environment.