14 DAY TRIAL // Currently priced at $499, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server is a great solution for organizations to collaborate, communicate, and share information. Lion Server will be a free component of Mac OS X 10.7 which Apple hasn’t yet priced, but plans to do so this summer.
In addition to being included with the shipping version of Lion, Mac OS X 10.7 Server promises to make deployment faster, easier, and more powerful than ever.
“Lion Server is now part of Mac OS X Lion. It’s easy to set up your Mac as a server and take advantage of the many services Lion Server has to offer,” Apple states.
With the launch of OS X Lion Developer Preview, Apple gave programmers a sneak peek at the features used to manage users and groups, monitor performance with graphs, as well as the integrated profile-based setup and management.
Lion Server guides users through configuring their Mac as a server. The setup process begins as soon as the user selects how he/she wants Lion installed.
The server OS provides local and remote administration for users and groups. These include push notifications, file sharing, calendaring, mail, contacts, chat, Time Machine, VPN, web, and wiki services.
Speaking of which, Lion introduces Wiki Server 3, an even easier way to collaborate, share, and exchange information, allowing users to quickly switch between a server’s home page, My Page, Updates, Wikis, People, and Podcasts.
It boasts an enhanced file-sharing tool as well, via WebDAV. Using it, iPad owners can access, copy, and share documents on the server from applications such as Keynote, Numbers, and Pages.
A new Page Editor is there as well.
Finally, the Profile Manager in OS X Lion simplifies profile-based setup and management not only for OS X Lion users, but for users of an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch too.
Your existing directory services are integrated with Lion’s Profile Manager, which allows it to deliver automatic, over-the-air profile updates using the Push Notification service set in place by Apple.