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The Enterprise Desktop Alliance (EDA), comprising Atempo, Centrify, Group Logic, LANrev and Parallels, will promote solutions that make it easy to deploy, integrate and manage Macs in primarily Windows-based workplaces, demonstrating how they can increase user productivity and reduce total cost of ownership.

It will also look to persuade IT departments that Macs have a rôle.

"The popularity of the Mac among corporate end-users does not mean that there have to be headaches for IT administrators," said Peter Frankl, founder and chief operating officer of LANrev. "We are determined to help companies integrate Macs into their enterprise environments by reducing total cost of ownership and increasing IT acceptance of Macs in the enterprise."

EDA's

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package of Mac software includes enterprise data protection from Atempo; identity & access management from Centrify; file and print services from Group Logic; systems lifecycle management from LANrev; and virtualisation from Parallels. EDA aims to ensure that IT departments can deploy these while providing the same level of support for - and maintaining the same degree of control over - Mac systems as they can with Windows.

At the same time, Mac users should be unaware that they are using Windows infrastructure. For instance, by providing identical views of files on the same Windows server for both platforms, users can share, access and print files as of they were on the same platform.

If a recent survey is to be believed, then this is as good a time as any to promote the Mac as an enterprise tool. Acording to the Yankee Group, Macs are now to be found in 80% of US firms, up from 30% just two years ago. And a year from now Apple will release Snow Leopard, which provides key enterprise features with full Microsoft Exchange support .

For more information go to enterprisedesktopalliance.com.