The wizard of OS
OS/2 has carved itself a niche by being the back-end system for financial houses, but NT is putting pressure on its well-established sites.
You could be forgiven for thinking that Windows NT has already takenncial houses, but NT is putting pressure on its well-established sites. over the world. At the recent Comdex show, its momentum seemed irresistible, while Microsoft announced that 11 million users now run Windows NT Workstation desktops.
What Microsoft failed to mention is that the masses are showing reluctance to give up IBM's OS/2.
Strangely, IBM is one of the first major corporations to adopt NT despite the fact that it owns a rival operating system. An entire IBM department is devoted to churning out Windows NT applications. The move is driven by the dependency on 32-bit Windows applications that is putting pressure on established OS/2 sites.
The banks are continuing to rely on OS/2, but appearance is still a consideration.
So, while many of them use OS/2 behind the scenes, the customer-facing systems tend to be based on Windows. The Royal Bank of Scotland, for example, is rolling out 7,000 OS/2 systems, but its public Website runs on Windows NT and its online banking operation requires Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.
The pressure to adopt Windows NT is driven by a desire to reduce the cost of maintaining the multiple skill sets. The Woolwich has a branch operation which relies on OS/2 workstations, while its head office employs a mix of OS/2 and Windows PC Lans.
Stuart England, senior manager for information technology at the Woolwich, was responsible for selecting OS/2 as the basis of the Woolwich branch office customer services platform back in 1993. He believed then that OS/2 had the industrial strength that Woolwich required for the job. He says: 'In the future we will give serious consideration to moving towards the NT platform.'
Until recently, the consensus was that Windows NT had derailed OS/2 and moved on to train Unix. The industry has started to realise that Windows could face serious competition from network computing. For most, the apparent demise of Warp was due to IBM's dismal marketing. But Steve Sharrad, Network Administrator at Henley College, says the reason is that too much attention is paid to hype, while many new network administrators only have experience in Windows.
Henley's network runs on Warp Server 4 serving 3,000 people on 300 workstations.
The IT support team consists of one person. 'All of our clients are diskless Dos/Windows, but they integrate so well into the system that most of them don't realise they're running on Warp Server,' Sharrad says. 'The college uses Warp Server because as an educational establishment we can't get locked into a cycle of having to upgrade every 12 months just to stay supported.' The problem for network computing, in his opinion, is that many of its advantages have to be seen for the potential to be realised.
For many companies, network management is important, but the critical issue is to maintain a stable applications development and deployment infrastructure. Having laid down a stable, reliable OS/2 infrastructure, the Woolwich is rolling out an upgrade to Warp Server to implement Java and Netscape Navigator for OS/2 on all workstations in their branches.
'We're positioning ourselves to be able to write some of our applications as Java thin client applications,' says Ellington, technical architect at the Woolwich. It's this client - manageable and not overloaded with functions - that is pushing Microsoft into the wider world of networked computers.
Hydra, the Citrix multi-user Windows server technology demonstrated at Comdex, is the latest Microsoft attempt to preserve the Windows application platform. It follows the NetPC, Zero Administration for Windows and Windows Distributed Internet Applications (DNA) architecture.
Citrix has been successful with its Windows applications servers, which provide centralised control of 32-bit Windows applications to be distributed to non-Windows platforms.
Ellington has been experimenting with Citrix for six months and is about to implement it at the Woolwich head office. He believes it is 'Microsoft's secret weapon - stunning stuff. I just wonder why it's taking Microsoft so long to ship.' Perhaps Microsoft is slow because it meets a market need while reducing the pressure on network and IT managers to upgrade older desktops to Windows NT.
Peter Bell, internet server product manager at Microsoft UK, says that PCs offer higher function every year at fixed prices. Hydra enables older Windows systems and non-Windows systems to adapt, but its shortcoming is that it doesn't support multimedia functions. Since Microsoft sells the 32-bit Windows applications platform on the back of enhanced function PCs with multimedia capabilities, the Hydra Windows-based terminals could well be seen as a retrograde step.
The question is which path large corporates follow. If they go with Windows DNA, they tie themselves to Microsoft platforms, PC upgrades and a moving target dependent on evolving ActiveX technology. Hydra is the cheaper alternative for users who do not want to invest in client hardware upgrades.
The downside for Mi crosoft is that it will expose Windows houses to the network computing technologies its competitors are promoting.
Bell sees the dilemma. On the one hand, he says, Hydra services Windows 3.1 with 32-bit applications without having to go through the hardware upgrade. He adds that the demand for Hydra function, the ability to run 32-bit applications everywhere, is a statement of the success of the Windows 32 platform. But on the other hand, he concedes, Hydra's lack of multimedia support means developers will have to anticipate whether applications are going to run on thin or PC clients.
It is problems like these that Microsoft's competitors hope to exploit, with Java applets that only have to be written once in order to run anywhere.
Hence IBM's re-working of Warp Server into WorkSpace On-Demand. WorkSpace On-Demand offers an alternative which supports a phased transition to network computing on standard hardware right down to 486s.
Sharrad anticipates using a forthcoming version of WorkSpace On-Demand to serve up Windows 95/NT applications to users over the existing network.
Whether IBM manages to do any better with WorkSpace On-Demand in the popularity stakes than it managed with Warp remains to be seen.
Steve Walker, IT architect at IBM Network Computing Solutions, reckons IBM is trying to capitalise on a market trend before it becomes established.
But IBM has been here before, ahead of the market with a technically proficient product, and it fluffed it.
WorkSpace On-Demand does take a bit of explaining. Ellington didn't understand what WorkSpace On-Demand did until he received a visit from an IBM representative who explained it. Ellington hasn't made his mind up about it yet, but he's not ready to move to Windows NT yet.
Their OS/2 system is stable and still has a lot of mileage in it. The deciding factor is its ability to provide an infrastructure whose cost can be controlled through centrally managed software distribution. Ellington says of the system: 'It's a third of the cost of our head office machines, which are more traditional PCs attached to Lans.'
It's a telling comment on the industry and the perceived dominance of Windows NT that companies have quietly reduced costs through networked computing with OS/2 Warp.