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Heads Up 8/97
The Standish Group Responds to Microsoft Attack
DENNIS, Mass.--Aug. 21, 1997--A recent advertisement
by Sun Microsystems in The Wall Street Journal (Tuesday, August 19,
1997, Page A15) used a portion of our recent research effort, "SUN
Also Rises: Solaris vs. NT."
In a subsequent public release from the Microsoft NT Server team,
Microsoft responded as follows:
"Rather than respond directly to Sun, or the ridiculous Standish Group
survey, Microsoft offers the following customer, press and analyst
quotes as evidence that Sun and Standish have no idea how the industry
as a whole views Windows NT Server."
This personal attack on our research is utterly incomprehensible. We
are astonished that rather than use the results of our independent
analysis to better their product offering, Microsoft would choose to
attack The Standish Group.
Our report was based on two things: one was a complete
feature/function comparison looking at over 250 discrete items.
Second, the report was based on thirty personal interviews with users
of both NT and Solaris operating systems. These users, sought out
through our own efforts, represented a range of industries and company
sizes. When Microsoft attacks this evaluation, they are attacking
their own users.
Microsoft was contacted with respect to assistance in our evaluation,
and the results of these talks did not strengthen the NT story. In
fact, these talks only substantiated our evaluation. Case in point:
All the thirty users interviewed complained of NT availability
concerns, stating the system often crashed for no apparent reason and
required a reboot. When Standish asked Microsoft why NT had these
availability problems, they responded stating they recently completed
a new feature: the system will now reboot 50% faster. If the system
never failed, why would Microsoft need to speed the reboot time?
This is just one example. Our report stated what is widely known in
the industry today - NT is just not ready for mission-critical
applications. Is this a surprise? It shouldn't be. Furthermore, it is
not shocking that NT would not fare well against a UNIX platform like
Solaris. NT is a much newer technology; Microsoft simply has not had
the same amount of time as UNIX vendors to make their operating system
mission-critical strength. It is not unreasonable that a more mature
technology would receive a better grade than a relative newcomer.
Rather than attack our research, Microsoft could have made use of it
to improve the product. After all, this report is not our opinion, but
an accumulation of user responses and a feature-by-feature comparison.
Microsoft should use this report and other evaluations to repair the
faulty features of NT, rather than to deem every bad mark
"ridiculous."
The full Standish Group report, "SUN Also Rises: Solaris vs. NT," is
available on our web site at: http://www.standishgroup.com/visitor/syst.htm.
For more information on this report please contact Karen D. Boucher,
Vice President of The Standish Group at 508-385-7500 or via e-mail to
karen@standishgroup.com. About The Standish Group International, Inc.
The Standish Group conducts market and technology research for users
and vendors in the mission critical open systems marketplace, with a
distinct focus on electronic commerce. The Standish Group additionally
provides custom consulting services to clients in the Fortune 500,
government agencies and major universities.
The Standish Group International, Inc. is located at 586 Olde King's
Highway in Dennis, MA.
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