Let’s be honest, the enterprise server market isn’t typically considered an area of strength for iDevice-maker Apple — and this next announcement seems to reaffirm that to the world. The company has posted a note on its Xserve splash page that states: “Xserve will no longer be available after January 31.” The company does go on to say that it will continue to support the pricey server. Apple has also made a PDF “transition guide” for Xserve-enthusiasts (if they exist) available, which explains what the Mac OS X Server options are going forward. All the literature is worded with the exact same verbiage: “Apple is transitioning away from Xserve.”
The statement does make us wonder what the company’s plans are for its Mac OS X Server software product. Think Apple will license its server software to run on other, generic, OEM server hardware, or do you think Apple is just throwing in the proverbial tower altogether? The current recommendation in the company’s transition guide touts the Mac Pro and Mac Mini, pre-loaded with Mac OS X Server, as an alternative. Although, if you’re a company in need of serious servers, you definitely aren’t considering either of those machines.
We’ve reached out to Apple for comment and will update this post with any additional information they provide.
Read [Xserve Page] Read [PDF Transition Guide]
