Apple Seemingly Kills macOS Server, Deprecates Many Essential Services
Apple announced what is seemingly the effective end to macOS Server. In a press release, Apple said:
TMO’s Dramatic Reenactment of Apple’s relationship with the enterprise
Just kidding, you can find the official announcement-via-support article on Apple’s site. Apple asks you, dear macOS Server user, to:
Prepare for changes to macOS Server
But it should ask you to prepare for pain. Many macOS Server services will be deprecated, according to the announcement:
A number of services will be deprecated, and will be hidden on new installations of an update to macOS Server coming in spring 2018. If you’ve already configured one of these services, you’ll still be able to use it in the spring 2018 macOS Server update.
These deprecated services will be removed in a future release of macOS Server, so those depending on them should consider alternatives, including hosted services. Deprecated services are listed below. Links to potential replacements are provided underneath each deprecated service.
The list of deprecated services is so long, one wonders what is left:
Calendar
Contacts
DHCP
DNS
Messages
NetInstall
VPN
Websites
Wiki
Apple’s Fits and Starts in Enterprise
This is yet another blow for those, particularly small businesses, that were relying on Apple for Enterprise/IT services. Users of macOS Server will have to find other ways replicate those services since they will be removed in future versions. In some forums like Macs In Law Offices (MILO), users noted, for example, that “Apple’s push notifications[, …] calendar and contacts” might be difficult to replicate.
The Apple Enterprise line of products on the Mac side has been sustaining a long drawn out drowning. This goes back to Apple discontinuing Xserve RAID and XServe hardware, and numerous macOS Server “upgrades” that have resulted in reduced functionality. This is, currently, in contrast to Apple’s increasing inroads to the enterprise market with iOS.
One wonders why Apple simply doesn’t pull the plug on the product line all together. In the support note, Apple claims:
macOS Server is changing to focus more on management of computers, devices, and storage on your network.
Perhaps Apple wants to ensnare a new group of Charlie Browns, because this time, this time Apple is tote’s serious about the enterprise. In the mean time, folks in forums have pronounced that “[b]asically…macOS Server [is] dead”.
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