While Macs have long enjoyed a strong reputation among creative professionals and consumers, their high prices have kept them from experiencing widespread deployment in enterprise environments. But new data released by IBM suggests that switching from PCs to Macs on an enterprise-wide level can actually help IT departments save money.
While Big Blue hardly seems like the most likely champion for Mac products, the company nevertheless said that it has saved anywhere from $273 to $543 per machine over a four-year period, thanks to switching from PCs to Macs. IBM also said that it has experienced twice as many tech support requests from employees using PCs compared with those using Macs.
Largest Mac Deployment in the World
IBM released its findings earlier this week at the Jamf Nation User Conference. Jamf is an Apple distribution partner that helps enterprises deploy Mac and iOS products to their employees.
At the conference, Fletcher Previn, VP of Workplace as a Service at IBM, said that the company began letting each employee choose whether to use an IBM or Mac starting in 2015. Since then, the number of Macs deployed within the company has grown to around 90,000, which means IBM now has the largest Mac deployment in the world.
Despite those numbers, Previn said the company has only needed five admins to support the deployment. Now, 73 percent of IBM employees are requesting Macs for their next machines, and the company expects to continue deploying as many as 1,300 new Macs company-wide every week. “Every Mac we buy is in fact continuing to make and save IBM money,” Previn said. The company expects to reach the 100,000-Mac mark before the end of the year.
IBM is saving money on more than just support costs, according to Previn. Common enterprise tools, such as hard drive encryption or anti-virus protection, typically require third-party software that must be purchased separately in addition to a PC. But on a Mac, such features are part of a standard installation, with FileVault and XProtect built in to the Mac operating system.
Building with LEGO
But Macs aren’t the only Apple product IBM is deploying. Big Blue has also distributed more than 48,000 iPads and 81,000 iPhones to its workers. IBM and Apple have been working together since they formed a partnership in 2014 to develop mobile enterprise apps. Known as IBM MobileFirst for iOS, the program has brought more than 100 business apps developed by IBM over to the iOS ecosystem.
IBM isn’t the only enterprise jumping on the Apple bandwagon these days. Global toymaker LEGO announced yesterday that it is also opening up its workplace to Apple devices in response to employee requests. At the moment, the company has only 700 Macs deployed at its headquarters in Denmark, but that is still enough to make it the largest Mac deployment in that country.
