Apple's newest piece for I.T. customers—its Xsan Storage Area Network File System—is designed to meet customer needs for video storage and distribution. The firm has been inching its way into the enterprise with a business model based on low maintenance and price competitiveness.

The company's entry into networked storage represents an evolution in its enterprise strategy that began with the introduction of the Xserver last year. Now, with its Xserve RAID storage device, Apple has a core set of tools to build its enterprise strategy.

The software part of the equation, the Xsan system priced at US$999, has been developed expressly to be interoperable with ADIC's StorNext File System. That allows Xsan to be used in Windows, Unix and Linux environments. ADIC makes automated tape-storage devices, and it partners with resellers like Sun, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

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On Thursday, Intego issued a press release saying it had found OS X's first Trojan Horse, a piece of malware called MP3Concept or MP3Virus.Gen that appears to be an MP3 file. If double-clicked and launched in the Finder, the Trojan accesses certain system files, the company claimed.

While Intego said the Trojan was benign, it said future versions could be authored to delete files or hijack infected machines. In the release, and in subsequent telephone interviews, Intego was vague about the purported Trojan's workings and its origins.

On Friday, Mac programmers and security experts accused the company of exaggerating the threat to sell its security software.

"They gave the impression that this is a threat, but it isn't," said Dave Schroeder, a systems engineer with the University of Wisconsin. "It is a benign proof of concept that was posted to a newsgroup. It isn't in the wild, and can't be spread in the wild. It's a non-issue."

"They are spreading FUD to sell their software," said Ryan Kaldari, a programmer from Nashville, Tennessee, referring to the shorthand for fear, uncertainty and doubt.

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"The new Xserve G5 server that we announced at Macworld this January has been very well received by our customers," said Apple in a statement given to MacCentral. "We plan to start shipping them in March 2004, a few weeks later than we originally planned."

Analysts do not expect the delay of the Xserve G5 to adversely affect sales from Apple's current enterprise market. Noting the differences in consumer and enterprise buying practices, analysts believe customers will wait the extra few weeks.

"The delay, while maybe disappointing to some customers, is only a few weeks. I would expect the major fallout would be bad publicity," Joe Wilcox, senior analyst at Jupiter Research, told MacCentral. "Customers willing to wait from January to early March would probably wait the couple extra weeks. No business serious about the reliability of its corporate infrastructure orders a server overnight."

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When Apple Computer hired Sebastian Gunningham away from Oracle (ORCL ) in the spring of 2002, some analysts thought CEO Steve Jobs had brought him on board to crack the corporate-computing market - long a dream of Apple execs. Sure enough, a month later, at Apple's 2002 World Wide Developers Forum, Jobs & Co. launched the Xserve, a powerful server aimed squarely at luring corporations and other users of big hardware.

Shortly thereafter, Apple (APPL) began to build a sales team to plumb the corporate market. It seemed primed for battle with the likes of hardware giants Dell (DELL), IBM (IBM), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and Sun Microsystems (SUNW).

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mi2g said its study focused on "overt digital attacks" and did not include other methods of intrusion such as viruses and worms.

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In addition to the article, it's been our experience that not only is Mac OS X (Server in our case) secure, the security is easy to set up and maintain relative to other server OS's.