How Creative Professionals Struggle with Mac/SMB File Sharing​

The presence of Apple Macs in business is growing and IT administrators must take special steps to ensure that Mac users can effectively utilize basic services like network file access, searching, sharing, and printing.

These basic services become even more important when employees using Macs are highly collaborative creative professionals like designers, publishers, and video editors who perform much more frequent network-based files-related activities than the typical worker, and often on much larger files.

The unique IT requirements of creative professionals include software (e.g., design application suites like Adobe Creative Cloud), hardware (e.g., Apple desktops and tablets, and more scalable storage), high-performance search capabilities through large-scale file libraries, and the ability to easily share files with Windows servers and desktops.

Anyone who has worked in a mixed Mac/Windows shop knows that the two environments have significant compatibility issues. Creatives on Macs often suffer server performance and usability handicaps that severely and adversely affect their productivity and satisfaction with their work environment.

A first-response solution might be to use an Apple solution. However, the problem with this approach is that Apple servers have severe scaling limitations and they struggle to accommodate businesses with anywhere near 100 employees. A useful discussion of this topic can be found here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5830716. Worse, Apple discontinued the Xserve in 2011 and it is inevitable that Xserve product support will be discontinued eventually, too.

The only real solution to accommodate large heterogeneous Mac/Windows workloads is to use a Windows File Server, in combination with network-attached storage (NAS) or a storage-area network (SAN). This requires the use of Microsoft’s file-sharing protocol, Server Message Block (SMB), which presents significant compatibility issues in mixed Mac/Windows environments.

Apple has its own protocol for network file sharing – Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) – but most NAS devices and Windows file servers natively communicate only via SMB. The vast majority of businesses rely on SMB, SAN, and NAS for file sharing and storage.

Creative organizations and departments share a common need to edit files directly from a server. Adobe does not support direct volume mounting. However: “Adobe Technical Support only supports using Photoshop and Adobe Bridge on a local hard disk. It's difficult to re-create or accurately identify network and peripheral-configuration problems.”

This presents an obstacle for users of popular Adobe design applications, notably Photoshop. The alternative to pointing Photoshop at a mounted server volume (a controversial practice) is copying files directly to the Mac to edit. This turns out to be an untenable solution when dealing with many large files. Though not officially supported, many companies want Adobe’s software to point at mounted volumes, as this approach streamlines work processes and enables multiple users to work from a centralized storage location.

Creative professionals rely heavily on Apple Spotlight and its ability to provide fast, sophisticated filename and content searches through multiple servers containing thousands or even millions of files. They expect and need this network-based file search function to work the same way it does on their local hard drives.

This is a big problem, as Spotlight’s search functionality is not supported when Macs connect to NAS devices or Windows servers through SMB. As a result, content search from Macs does not work on Windows servers and most NAS devices, and ordinary file searches can take minutes or hours, instead of seconds. This greatly diminished search functionality has a hugely adverse effect on a Mac user’s productivity.

Acronis Files Connect allows Macs to connect to Windows file shares using AFP – Apple’s native file sharing protocol – by acting as an AFP file server running directly on a Windows server.

With Acronis Files Connect, organizations can quickly install a simple solution that eliminates these stubborn incompatibility problems, enabling Mac users to exist harmoniously and work productively in a Windows-based environment. Apple Spotlight search works properly. Problems with file naming, file access permissions, network printing, unreliable file transfers, and slow server performance disappear.

Consider the examples of two companies that overcame their Mac/Windows compatibility issues by using Acronis Files Connect:

Quad/Graphics’ Media division faced compatibility issues that impeded its ability to share files across the organization. It sought to integrate a mixed Mac/Windows environment of 600 Mac desktops and 50 Windows Servers, but the systems struggled to communicate. Quad/Graphics implemented Acronis Files Connect to give its Mac users fast and immediate access to Windows file servers. Acronis offered the only Windows-based AFP server solution to support all Mac versions.

The results were extremely positive, and later, Quad/Graphics had expanded its print operations to 30 sites worldwide. Their IT infrastructure was able to develop and expand, free of any Mac/Windows compatibility restrictions.

Phoenix Printing Plates initially opted to create a Mac/Windows environment without Acronis Files Connect. They suffered from the common misconception that Apple/Microsoft compatibility issues had dwindled over time and that Apple’s official support of Microsoft SMB had eliminated the old incompatibility problems.

They quickly discovered that this was not the case. Mac to Windows Server connections were possible, but they suffered from a range of stubborn problems: long delays, the inability to rename or move files, time-consuming and inaccurate searches, and overall slow performance. Phoenix Printing Plates had looked to a new Windows server infrastructure to improve productivity and enable their team’s objectives, but it wasn’t until deploying Acronis Files Connect that they were truly able to do so. Restoration of full Spotlight search functionality and performance and fast, trouble-free file sharing with Windows servers made Phoenix Printing Plates’ Mac users productive and happy again.