Apple announced a server edition of it’s popular Mac Mini back in October of last year. This was a pretty neat idea but didn’t necessarily surprise me.
It’s price wasn’t too bad either starting at less than a grand ($999).
Built with Mac OS X, it’s built with open standards and includes a host of enterprise-grade technologies.
Things like Open Directory, hosting platforms (Apache, BIND for DNS hosting and Dovecot-based mail service), collaboration tools, deployment/client management tools, and print services.
Everything you’d probably expect, right?
With an easy setup, backup, and management, this might just be the thing for a small ministry and/or church.
Just my 2 cents, of course.
What do you think? Mac Mini Server a good choice for a small church and/or organization?
Or am I just crazy?
Yes. It really would be all you’d need for a small church. Though, a small church is probably better off running mail through google or some other hosted solution than having to manage and keep up with spam issues.
We run OS X server as our main server (on an XServe though) but a mac mini probably would have gotten us by for quite a while…
Had Google Apps, etc been around when I first setup our church IT then I’d have sent them down that path. As it is we get a good mail service from our current ISP / hosting service and movign them now would be problematic in terms of training / support issues.
But agreed – google mail and apps is definitely the way for a smaller organisation.
good point here.
I think it’s an awesome idea. BUT, how many small churches have people on staff that could set it up and manage it? Being from a rural community, I can see great potential for smaller churches utilizing technology but my experience is most simply do not feel adequate to invest in something that seems so simple because they do not understand it.
I’m here as well.
And what’s the definition of a small church? To me it’s >100. In this case there may only be 1-2 staff members and anything beyond basic would probably consume too much of their time.
I consider the church I attend and support as small.
In numbers we’re <200 but we are in a fairly unique position in that as a church we employ 5 (or is it 6) full time workers including the pastor and approx another 4 or so part time. One of the reasons we can do this is that we also run a book (christian) importing business which then distributes these throughout the UK. In a lot of the cases we are the sole importers.
Additionally we run a playgroup 5 mornings a week which employs two more part time and we hire out our rooms, etc to local companies wanting larger areas for conferences, AGM's etc.
Yet IT is still last on their list of thoughts despite needing to rely on it so much.
that’s a good point.
Well along with another report I’ve just read this morning that Macs are cheaper to run than PCs then it can only be good stuff.
However – Apple very much need to address the issue of fixing flaws quicker than they do and in having a business based oradmap for their kit. Maybe this is the first step.
ah. that’s true.
While I would probably go the route of gApps for much of the communication features, the mini server is also a valuable addition. With Mac OS X Server you get all available services. The mini can make a great Internal wiki or file server or use podcast producer in your workflow.
love the idea about podcasting.
I love the mini server, I bought one for our church to replace a dying G4 MDD. The speed is fantastic and Mac OS X Server 10.6 has been outstanding.