Used to be that the Apple fanboy pack was a grassroots affair lead by the usual suspects: hobbyists, students, and freelance creative types. Now, we have a new pack of Mac enthusiasts espousing the platform, and these cats are all business.

Dubbed "Enterprise Desktop Alliance," the group consists of five vendors whose main job is to get the Mac integrated in as many businesses as possible. Some of the members include virtualization firm Parallels and identity management specialist Centrify.

Though they will no doubt be pushing their own products, the group could be useful to some IT managers who are constantly being pestered by Mac-using employees who want to be integrated into the network. A set of best practices and papers on leveraging Macs into corporate networks could solve quite a few headaches.

02 Jul 2008