Enterprises: Move to Macs is now even more cheaper

Apple seems to have gone on a price reduction spree, was just browsing TUAW and I found this post talking about Snow Leopard Server, the server edition of Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard will now be available for $499 for the Unlimited version, yes $499 for Unlimited number of users a huge $500 drop from the previous price of $999 for Unlimited number of users, Leopard Server used to come for $499 for 10 users and $999 for Unlimited number of users. Snow Leopard will now retail in September and will be available in only one version (I think so) at $499 for Unlimited number of users. This really increases the reasons why businesses especially small and medium ones should start adopting Macs as their Servers. Apart from the price, the notable features as per TUAW include:

Mail Server — The engine running Mail Server has been totally redesigned for much faster service, and now provides push email, vacation messages and server-side rules, and improvements to mail server clustering. Web Server — The biggest change to Web Server is that it can now do HTTP live video streaming. Performance is about 1.3x faster than Leopard Server’s web services as well. Client Management — Organizations that are deploying many iPhones will love the new client management piece of Snow Leopard Server. It has an iPhone configuration utility for creating profiles that can be emailed to corporate users, thus setting up secure services in a few seconds. Administrators can now also use NetRestore to rebuild Macs over networks, based on either a custom build disk image or a standard OS X install disk. Mobile Access Server — The piece that I’m probably the most excited about as an Xserve admin is Mobile Access Server. This new feature is like a custom VPN for Mac and iPhone users. As long as they’re set up in the server’s directory service, users can get secure, encrypted access to the server and network with very little hassle. iCal Server 2 — This upgrade to Leopard’s iCal Server now provides push notification, wireless accessibility to your calendar from any iPhone, a new web-based calendaring interface, and updates to CalDAV that now allow you to invite colleagues to meetings via email. Podcast Producer 2 — Podcast Producer, which was added to the server mix in Leopard, is now improved with Podcast Composer. This new feature lets you create your own workflows for automating completion and publishing of podcasts. There’s also a new Setup Assistant in Server Admin that can set up Podcast Producer 2 in a manner of minutes, even if you’re setting up a cluster of servers. Wiki Server 2 — Workgroups wishing to collaborate now have a little bit more to love from Wiki Server. The only real new feature is iPhone support; users can securely log into confidential wikis and content, and even review content and comments from the iPhone.

It is absolutely seems to be a direct attack at Microsoft in Server market. I foresee a lot of business value in shifting from the non mac to the Mac server much more than what I had calculated before. This means better value for Mac Server users and its amazing.