Catching up after a few days off, I see that Apple is now shipping the first of its new Xserve G5 servers. According to this story, the Xserve G5 is opening doors at telecom companies and other enterprise-level businesses where Apple has previously not done well.

While the Xserve has proved popular as a file and print server or as a Web server, Apple Director of Hardware Storage Alex Grossman told internetnews.com the G5 is gaining popularity on the edge of the network with content delivery providers and telecommunication companies.

"We're being welcomed into these new areas," Grossman said. "What we're seeing is the QuickTime streaming platform being used for a number of content delivery uses. These companies are looking at their UNIX-based Sun and other vendor boxes and moving over to Macintosh OS X Panther."

Apple is quietly making gains in server rooms and data centers and not just because the art department needs a G5. Improvements to the company's Xserve and Xserve RAID products as well as new networking software is allowing more companies to give Apple the eye.