Is virtualization helping Mac gain ground in the enterprise?

Even though Apple has done little to try and convert the enterprise masses from the PC to the Mac, its effect on the consumer market is crossing the bridge into the corporate world. More and more companies are allowing their workers to switch from a Windows machine to a Mac OS X client.

What kind of numbers are we talking here? According to a recently published survey from Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC), the number of businesses planning to add Mac desktops or laptops into their corporate mix has doubled since earlier this year. Sixty-eight percent of 700 companies said they would allow their employees to use their Macs as work computers in the next 12 months, twice as many as answered just 8 months ago in a similar survey.

Laura DiDio, an analyst at ITIC, said there were numerous factors that have sparked an uptick in Mac acceptance in the enterprise, ranging from a more competitive pricing by Apple, the consumer popularity of Apple’s iPhone, and the addition of virtualization software from companies like Parallels and VMware.

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The ability of Intel-based Macs to run Microsoft Windows and its business based applications alongside Mac OS X could be a huge push in these numbers. The survey showed approximately 30 percent of the IT professionals polled said that the Macs in their organizations are running Windows XP or Vista in virtual environments, up 2 percentage points from an earlier DiDio survey in 2008.

The trend appears to be accelerating, and part of that reason could be a less than favorable outlook on Microsoft’s Windows XP successor operating system: Vista. With Windows 7 looming in the distant future, perhaps things will swing back the other way or at least slow down the percentage gains, although if Parallels and VMware continue to increase the power and capabilities of their respective virtualization software on the Mac, anything is possible.