Apple Mac skills increasingly important in IT

Here at Longton City Learning Centre, we use Apple Macs extensively for education and training in many areas, and due to Mac OS X's superiority in comparison to Windows, this looks set to become increasingly common in schools and businesses.

With the Macintosh now the PC of choice for many hard-core technology professionals, and Mac skills an in-demand speciality among IT pros, industry experts say that skills in Apple's computer technologies are becoming increasingly important in IT.

"The Mac will be coming soon to a company near you, if it hasn't already," says Brian Vaughn, executive vice president of Dataprise, a network support and IT solutions provider. "If you're a hard-core tech, having an OS X computer is the greatest thing in the world." You not only have a consumer-friendly operating system, he says, but also "a world of open-source software" and all the possibilities offered by Unix.

While multimedia and design specialists have long used Macs, companies are now integrating the systems into their IT set-ups for a range of purposes. That means all sorts of techies should have some Macintosh expertise.

The skills IT professionals require -- was evident to Vaughn when one of Dataprise's clients, with about 100 computer users, made it clear that the company needed to have adequate Macintosh know-how. "Unless you can support our Macintosh enterprise, we're not going to be able to stay with you guys," Vaughn says Dataprise was told.

And now, with new Macs running on Intel chips, the Mac is capable of running not only Apple's OS X and Unix, but also Windows. "This ability to have the best of both worlds on a single machine will result in further inroads of the Macintosh platform into the mainstream business environment -- and increase the need for those who support company IT systems to be familiar with it," Vaughn says.

If you would like information on getting or providing training in these necessary skills, or need help intergrating Macs into your own computer network, please don't hesitate to contact us on 01782 591040.

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Do you want to Shut Down your computer?

Better get into the habbit of shutting down your computers rather than putting them into standby - the UK government is set to outlaw standby buttons from many pieces of electronic equipment.

The govenment "is hoping to switch off fossil-fuels and turn on environment-friendly methods of generating power, but shows an equal interest in saving energy around the house. According to a report, the average British household uses 8% of its total energy usage by leaving electrical devices on stand-by."

"TVs, DVD players and video recorders will no longer be left in electronic-purgatory, as the government imposes harsh-but-fair tactics on electronics manufacturers. Other devices that found their way onto the end of the government's hitlist included lighting, set-top boxes, chargers, fridges, freezers, washing machines and PCs."

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