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Heads Up 6/97
NT Not Ready for Prime Time, Says IT Managers and Analysts
The jury is in. According to articles published last week in the wake
of Microsoft Scalability Day, IT managers and industry analysts still
don't think NT is ready for the big time as a robust enterprise
platform.
Published articles stated that, before NT can be considered a
legitimate replacement for operating systems such as Solaris, it
needs to surmount several shortcomings, according to more than two
dozen analysts and corporate users commenting on Microsoft's recent
announcements.
Performance improvements demonstrated by NT - the ability to process
1.1 billion transactions per day, running terabyte-size databases,
support for 50,000 mail users, handling 100 million Internet hits per
day, 64-bit memory support - look and sound impressive, but are not
sufficient, the users and analysts quoted in industry publications
concluded.
Scalability
Software specialists who commented publicly on the technology,assert
that there is a lot more work to be done before NT is scalable to the
demanding world of the enterprise.
Scalability is the ability to run your application in the most
cost-effective manner on whatever size system makes sense. The
scalability concept is not about the largest system possible. It is
about the range of systems that can run a given application
efficiently.
Why is scalability important? Successful data warehouses, Web sites,
intranets and client/server systems can have a tremendous growth rate -
and if the chosen platform does not automatically grow - scale - when
needed, the whole expensive exercise fails.
The Solaris operating environment scales from one-cpu Intel-based
systems to the largest SMP manufactured today: the SPARC-based 64
processor E10000. Storage can be up to hundreds of terabytes; I/O
bandwidth is properly architected and balanced, and is fully utilized
by Solaris systems code. All of the major database systems work at the
largest levels attainable today for any environment. Solaris systems
accommodate from one to thousands of simultaneous users. That makes the
Solaris environment a world-leading scalable computing platform.
NT 4.0 Enterprise Edition, which will be available in the third quarter
of 1997, promises to scale to a maximum of eight DEC Alpha cpus, or
four Pentiums. Proprietary clustering solutions are offered for
scalability beyond eight cpus. But, according to recent articles in a
number of trade journals, the NT kernel does not allow applications to
scale well.
Reliability
Even after the fanfare, users -- particularly those in financial
markets -- still expressed concern about trusting their
mission-critical data operations to an immature platform like NT.
Enterprise-class operating environments take time to develop and
refine. The Solaris operating system has more than 15 years of experience and
is now deployed around the globe to reliably run online banking
systems, large data warehouses and other mission-critical
applications.
An important aspect of reliability for any company planning to address
the needs of the enterprise is security.
As with the server market, Sun is a leader in bringing powerful
encryption, access control, network perimeter defense,
application-level security and authentication software products to the
enterprise. In fact, security is inherent to all of Sun's enterprise
computing solutions, providing true end-to-end connectivity for its
customers with assurance of security. Security that is designed to
scale to meet the needs of an enterprise.
Further, Sun takes a global view of security. Its security architecture
includes options to provide variable key lengths to accomodate the
export laws. Global corporations are depending on the networked
enterprise, and only Sun can deliver enterprise scalability along with
advanced and reliable security products today.
Senior industry analysts observed that Microsoft is playing catch up in the
enterprise market, noting that when Wolfpack finally ships,
Microsoft will be delivering capabilities on Windows that UNIX vendors
have been shipping since 1990.
Clustering is used primarily to achieve a level of data availability
that is not attainable with a single server. Clustering involves
linking multiple, distinct computer systems. If clustering is used as a
mechanism to achieve scalability, you will likely observe a performance
hit in the 30 to 60 percent range.
Sun's clustering products, such as Solstice HA 1.3 and PDB 1.2, are
shipping today, and Sun's clustering road map details plans for further
improving the up-time in commercial systems by providing a global
cluster file system, the ability to manage a cluster as a single system
and support for an increased number of nodes in its cluster products.
Both clustering and scalability play important roles in the enterprise
server environment and that is where their similarity ends. In
enterprise environments, companies use clustering for reliability and
scale their systems to deliver seamless performance.
Another important aspect of availability in the enterprise is mail.
While Microsoft has announced an enterprise version of its Internet
Mail System - Microsoft Exchange, which is targeted to be available in
1998 - Sun offers an award-winning enterprise mail system today: Sun
Solstice Internet Mail Server.
The product was just awarded PC Magazine's Editor's choice for best
IMAP4 (Internet Mail Access Protocol) Internet mail server (1). With a
complete implementation of the IMAP4 standard, Sun Internet Mail Server
provides a reliable, dependable, and scalable solution today.
And, Sun Internet Mail Server offers native support of the major
internet standards, allowing companies to communicate inter-company
with satellite offices or remote/disconnected users as well as with
partners and customers. Sun Internet Mail Server also supports
multiple clients for Macintosh, Unix and Windows. Sun actively partners
with vendors that provide client solutions to keep customers'
investments safe.
Microsoft Exchange is based on a proprietary architecture that
communicates through gateways to the Internet. This approach severely
impacts performance, reliability and the cost of ownership. Also,
Microsoft Exchange does not currently support IMAP4. And, based on a
May 8, 1997 article on c/net, the '98 Enterprise version may not have
support for this critical standard either (2).
Sun's range of development tools - supporting Java, C/C++, Fortran
and other languages - are ideal for developing enterprise applications
for the WebTone. Application servers, typically implemented in C/C++,
run business- and mission-critical applications for the enterprise and
need to be robust, high-performance and scalable. Powerful servers are
even more critical in exploiting the potential of thin clients.
The multiprocessing technology helps developers to unlock the power of
multi-processor servers. With Sun WorkShop software, developers
quickly build, optimize, and tune multi-threaded applications to the
highest levels of performance. Additionally, the Sun WorkShop
development environment includes automated tools that improve team
productivity by allowing team members to program, coordinate, integrate
and build enterprise applications in parallel.
Final Analysis
Industry analyts conclude that Microsoft will continue to have a tough
job selling NT to the enterprise. They anticipate it will take
Microsoft and its partners at least 10 years to make inroads into the
enterprise market and compete with trusted UNIX operating systems like
Solaris.
Sun is committed to continued advancements in product solutions and
technology so that enterprise customers can depend on Sun for
mission-critical applications.
For more information:
- May 27, 1997 -- PC Magazine, "Behind the IMAP4 Rap."
- May 8, 1997 -- c/net, "Exchange to get New Features," by Christine MacDonald
Reality Check: Sorry, Microsoft, NCs ARE Compatible
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, SunSoft, The Network Is the
Computer, Java, Solaris, Solstice, Java Workshop, and Sun Internet Mail
Server are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems,
Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks
are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of
SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other Countries.
Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture
developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other trademarks are held by
their respective owners.
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