Apple Mac OS X

CCS Support for Macintosh

Over the last few years, CCS has been moving towards developing an IT infrastructure environment that is non-platform specific.  This is part of our strategy to implement services and applications that utilize web or hosted solutions rather than looking to invest in solutions that have an ‘either or’ approach.  Some examples include GryphMail, D2L,FootPrints, CFS, wireless access and so forth.    However, not all systems are accessible via a browser. For some key administrative systems (e.g. Colleague), access is only available through PC clients. As a result, the only fully supported environment for administrative functions remains PC based.

CCS will continue to pursue non platform specific solutions and guide our future decisions with the intent to make our services and technology solutions available to as many users in the community as possible.  This will benefit those individuals with Macintosh computers, just as it will provide usability for those with other platforms.  To that end, CCS will provide best effort Macintosh support in situations where users require access to our non platform specific services.

A number of CCS employees have been running Macintosh computers and based on this as well as the experience of many other Macintosh users on campus, we feel there is a relatively stable technology environment for Macintosh users on campus.  CCS does not plan to pursue advanced expertise in the Macintosh environment at this time; however we recognize the value and success of the peer support for Macintosh currently provided by a select group of IT Admins and users.  We strongly support this ongoing cooperative effort.    To that end, we encourage IT Admins and other key members of the U of G community to continue to share their Macintosh experiences.  CCS will continue to monitor and learn from these exchanges along with other members of our campus.

If a non platform specific approach is unavailable for a required technology solution, CCS will pursue a solution that continues to meet the needs of majority of our users, which at the University of Guelph is still the Windows platform. CCS will continue to pursue licensing opportunities for a number of key applications where they are available and cost effective (e.g. MS Office Suite; Cisco VPN; Virtual PC; ).  While the University of Guelph will continue to utilize Microsoft operating systems into the future, CCS does not intend to expand its general CCS Help Centre support for Windows beyond its current model, which is to guide members of the community through the various Windows features required to support CCS services as well as our supported products or applications. 

CCS does not intend to expand our general support to a level that would require installations, major configuration changes or direct hardware support, other than to utilize vendor support as is currently the case.  We also do not foresee expanding our general support for any other operating systems/platforms in this way.   CCS does provide a Managed Desktop service to departments on campus who have signed an agreement for this service and within that service we do provide installations and limited hardware support as outlined in our service level agreements.