If your organization has Macs deployed on a large scale, you may be thinking about upgrading to the newly released OS X, also known as Lion. The new platform--which is more like Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS than any before it--will undoubtedly affect some existing processes, and Computerworld's Ryan Faas presents some lengthy, detailed items you should consider before making the move.

Unlike previous versions of OS X, Lion has to be downloaded from the Mac App Store. Later in August, Apple will sell Lion on a flash drive, but that would likely prove cost-prohibitive for a large-scale installation. To help deal with problems following deployment, Lion comes with a variety of self-recovery features, including a recovery partition during the deployment process. While consumers might appreciate this capability, IT groups may be wary of it, Faas cautioned. 

Where Lion seriously departs from earlier versions of OS X is in a feature--called AirDrop--that enables sharing and collaboration. It enables users to more easily share data wirelessly, using a firewalled, TLS-encrypted P2P link. "That means more user empowerment, less IT involvement and better data security than that offered by flash drives or public cloud services like Dropbox," Fass writes. This feature has "game-changing potential," he writes, while noting that it also has a number of limitations.

Integration with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Exchange and Active Directory improves with Lion. There are also enhanced security features, including built-in malware detection and an extension to earlier file encryption capabilities.

For more:
-Ryan Fass's article at Computerworld

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