Growing numbers of enterprise IT administrators must come up with updates, core applications and network authentication services for more and more Apple clients and devices, due to the growing numbers of Apple desktop, notebook and iPhone users. Fortunately, many compatibility options are available to integrate Apple's x86 hardware architecture and computing systems with Microsoft Windows-based applications and management infrastructure. One of two primary administrative tasks will be to provide a solid software update framework for system security patches and fixes for bugs. The other primary task will be to 'fold' the updated systems into each organization's identity and policy-based management framework. In most cases, OS X devices will have to be connected to each company's active directory (AD). On OS X 10.5, the operation for adding machines to an AD domain has been progressively simplified, by launching the OS X Directory Utility, specifying domain and providing correct credentials. Windows-based administration rights can be exercised on OS X clients by launching the Directory Utility, and specifying behavior in the 'allow administration by' section of the AD service entry. Ensuring that key Windows applications will work with OS X-based devices may prove more difficult than integrating OS X clients with Windows identity infrastructure. However, now Windows and OS X currently share an instruction set enabling OS X users to run Windows applications from a 'virtual instance' of Microsoft's operating system running on Apple hardware. Even simpler might be to utilize Apple's Boot Camp utility, which will dual-boot a Mac computer into an OS X and Windows machine.