It’s not often that relevant channel news that includes Apple computers graces my inbox, but here’s an interesting exception: Both Sophos and Centrify have announced support for OS X Lion out of the gate. What will they bring to the table, and what should VARs know? Read on for the scoop …

Sophos isn’t exactly offering something new, but the company is promising complete OS X Lion compatibility with Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac and Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac: Home Edition. Sophos’ anti-virus software detects both Windows and Mac viruses (for mixed environment protection) and can block new and evolving Mac threats automatically. I’ve maintained my skepticism for using anti-virus for home Mac users but an SMB or enterprise environment is completely different. Ensuring Macs aren’t carriers for Windows malware is key to a heterogeneous computing environment. With Sophos ensuring OS X Lion support, IT admins can rest a little easier.

So now Mac OS X Lion has antivirus support: check. What about Active Directory support? You’re in luck, because Centrify wants to make it known it supports Mac OS X Lion — good news for all the IT admins who need to make Macs play nice with Microsoft’s user management solutions and Windows Group Policy. Like Centrify announcements of past, all the management, security, locking and authentication you’ve come to know and love is still there. Again, it’s nothing exactly new in the way of features, but knowing support exists is important.

Methinks Centrify’s and Sophos’ “Day 1″ announcement is indicative of something bigger. Macs are increasingly popular, and Centrify noted Macs are finding their way into the workplace more frequently these days. I believe it’s just another example in the whole consumerization of IT trend, and both Sophos and Centrify are smart to support Apple products instead of rejecting them as unfit for business. This is a win for Centrfiy and Sophos, it’s a win for Apple and it’s a win for IT admins and channel partners who now can say “yes” when a customer asks about the Mac platform.

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6 Comments on “Sophos, Centrify Ride the Lion with Support for New Mac OS”

  1. Day 1 Emperor has no clothes Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 11:03 am

    Dave,
    This story would have more legs were Centrify the only Mac AD vendor to have shipped day 1.

    To give just one example, Thursby Software shipped on the day of release and some of its products were Lion-ready as far back as February.

    All the Mac enterprise companies track OS development. Most enterprise don’t move to new OSes day 1 other than in testing or piloting which has gone one since February and “Day minus months” doesn’t have the same ring but was a much earlier “yes” than this item suggests!

  2. Z-IP Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 11:26 am

    Z-IP one-time Centrify partner also shipped day 1, so which companies didn’t?

  3. Dave Courbanou Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 1:22 pm

    Hi Day 1 Emperor,

    Thanks for the update and the much needed perspective. I was just doing a little recap of what I saw on the scene, but maybe we’ll do a full list of Mac AD vendors in the near future.

    Thanks,

  4. James Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 4:50 pm

    Dave, ask Centrify for a demo of their software showing “Day 1 Support.” It’s vaporware. We’re a Centrify customer and we can’t get a Centrify update for our Lion systems. You guys seem to publish a lot of stuff about Centrify that we’ve come to find out isnt true.

  5. David Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    Hi Dave,
    I’d like to confirm that we do have Centrify DirectControl for Mac OS X 10.7 available (since yesterday morning at 10am) for anyone who needs to integrate their Lion system into Active Directory. And we’ve had hundreds of downloads over the last 24 hours without a glitch.
    Feel free to download yourself and give it a try with our free Centrify Express version (http://www.centrify.com/express). Our enterprise customers can login to our Support Portal to download the full DirectControl for OS X 10.7 version. James, You can email me at david dot mcneely at centrify if you need help getting in to the Support Portal.
    We have been working pretty hard since the first Lion betas and gold master builds to provide our customers a quality product to integrate Lion into Active Directory. And there are lots of cool new Lion features that our Enterprise customers have been waiting for some time for such as DFS and Full Disk Encryption which work great with Active Directory users.

    Thanks
    -David

  6. The VAR Guy Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    James@4: The VAR Guy welcomes constructive criticism and feedback on this site. We stand by David Courbanou’s coverage but if you spot issues with our coverage we’ll always listen to the feedback.

    David@5: Thanks for the update on Centrify.
    -TVG

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