By Eric Bickford

December 10, 2024

Developers and other creatives today are demanding the utmost in performance to build, test and deploy apps to keep their businesses running. Small and medium businesses are particularly challenged to find top price/performance options so they can focus on getting it done while realizing time and cost savings.  These kinds of efficiencies are why Mac cloud services are so valuable for small and medium business developers, and why they all significant performance leaps in technology.

That’s why we are so jazzed about the recent announcement from Apple about their new Mac mini product line running on the blazing fast M4 and M4 Pro silicon. At last! We’re excited to announce today our new cloud services based on the Apple Mac mini. Plus, the built-in Thunderbolt 5 local networking offers developers some screaming connectivity and file transfers times.  All of this translates to significant time and cost savings.

So what’s so hot about the latest Mac mini’s from Apple?  A lot. With a top-end 14-core CPU and up to 20-core GPU, the M4 Pro chips roar through graphics-intensive tasks and computations. Developers who are editing videos, building and deploying apps, or running AI models or simulations will enjoy the raw power.  Plus these sleek and small footprint Mac minis are designed to be incredibly energy efficient, cutting down on power needs.

And developers running particular apps will certainly be taking advantage of the unique superpower of the Thunderbolt 5 local networking capability.  Available on the Mac minis outfitted with the M4 Pro chip, the Thunderbolt 5 can be used in more complex cluster configurations of several systems. Thunderbolt 5 unlocks high-speed clustering of Mac minis in the cloud, so developers can combine multiple systems for demanding workloads like software testing, video editing, or AI, creating a powerful and scalable solution.  We can help step you through what makes sense for your situation.

Cloud-based solutions offer inherent advantages that small and medium business developers and IT teams can take advantage of, namely:

   • Bare Metal.  We supply the OS and infrastructure, and you bring the apps
   • Dedicated system. No need for sharing. You have direct control over everything. 
   • Flexibility.  Access the Mac mini instance from anywhere
   • Scalability. Spin up additional fire power when you need it 
   • Reliability.  Uptime at 99.9% 
   • Security.  Apple’s built-in features plus state of the art data centers give peace of mind

A bare metal Mac in the cloud solution can be just what many small and medium businesses need to rein in the costs, keep their most demanding applications running smoothly and relieving the burden of purchasing and maintaining the infrastructure. In this way developers can spend their creative energies being creative. We’re happy to advise small businesses on how to do it. Together, lets build the future.