InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
Hot In '97: Powerful Tools
Issue date: Jan. 6, 1997
The software industry will add more muscle to the enterprise this year. The goal: to make more data and applications available to users-- and help them do more with it. Hot items for IT managers will be a more scalable network operating system, Web-based collaborative tools, powerful ways to customize desktop applications, client-server applications that can be accessed via the Web, database modules for a variety of unstructured data types, and improved online analytical processing capabil ities. Here are the highlights of what's generating the most heat.
Windows NT 5.0
Microsoft begins its onslaught on the enterprise and on Unix this year as it rolls out the key components of its distributed application deployment strategy. It will deliver Windows NT Server 5.0, which includes the underlying plumbing, including a distributed file system, global directory, and Kerberos security. Users also can expect new versions of its clients that will incorporate the Internet Explorer browser in the user interface.
The new Windows 95 client operating system, code-named Memphis, will incorporate Internet Explorer into the user interface. It also will include features such as an enhanced 32-bit file system, known as VFAT-32. To head off competitors, in the first half of the year, Microsoft will also ship an update to the browser, called IE 4.0, that will integrate with the Windows File Explorer and add capabilities for executing HTML documents directly on the user's de sktop, which Microsoft calls Dynamic HTML.
High on the list of anticipated features is a comprehensive global directory services component called Active Directory. A preview version released in November features support for Kerberos security; Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, a scaled-down version of X.500 directory that is fast becoming a de facto Internet protocol standard; the Distributed File System; and OLE Directory Services.
Microsoft also will begin delivering the rest of the pieces needed for deploying distributed applications. First will come the Transaction Server, which lets applications communicate synchronously over a network. Microsoft will deliver a store-and-forward, messaging-oriented middleware product, code-named Falcon, that will assure customers that a database transaction has taken place on the other side of the globe via the distributed network.
Microsoft will also ship the first phase of its NT clustering initiative. It will initially provide failove r capabilities only between two servers, allowing one to take over the other's users, data, and applications if it fails unexpectedly or if administration is necessary on one. A later version, scheduled for 1998, will add support for multiple machine clusters. "Clustering is essential for availability," says Britt Mayo, IT director for Pennzoil in Houston, which is running numerous critical applications on NT.
These pieces will put pressure on Unix vendors to innovate, says Jean Bozman, an analyst at IT advisory firm International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. Still, she sees Unix holding its ground for the next few years--noting that this year, most of the Unix vendors will ship 64-bit versions, something Microsoft won't support until the end of the century. --Stuart J. Johnston
Groupware
As 1996 has come to a close, so, too, has an era of proprietary group- ware platforms. Fueled by demand for connectivity among co-workers, whether they're across the hall or acro
ss the globe, companies are looking to Web-based groupware as a cost-effective means of sharing information across the enterprise.
The $2.5 billion groupware market is being transformed by the open architecture of the Web, with traditional vendors rushing to reposition their products. Lotus Development has overhauled its Notes server, now called Domino, into an interactive Web platform. Likewise, both Novell and Microsoft this quarter will add support for Internet protocols such as POP3, LDAP, and IMAP into their groupware offerings, GroupWise and Exchange Server, respectively, to expand support for collaborative applications. Microsoft also is adding support for its Active Server scripting language, which will let developers embed messaging features into Web-based applications.
A key indicator of the demand for Web-based groupware is the explosive growth of intranets. By using Web browsers as a front end, intranets are eliminating the long-standing hassles of sharing documents, calendar a nd scheduling information, and other business data in a heterogeneous computing environment. And there are signs that companies are earning rich paybacks: Research by IDC shows that companies like Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Cadence Design Systems, and Silicon Graphics reaped returns of more than 1,300% on their intranets, largely from reduced training costs and being able to change vendors.
The groupware market is expected to heat up even more this year when Netscape ships its highly anticipated Communicator, a client package that includes its Navigator browser as well as group discussion software, a Web E-mail client, and HTML editing tools. The product will merge the openness of the Web with the security, directory services, and remote access support that come with a proprietary messaging system, says Ben Horowitz, group product manager in Netscape's server division.
In addition, other lower-cost products from up-and-coming groupware vendors such as Open Text, RadNet, and WebFlow have h it the market, offering customers a wider range of Web-based choices. Document management vendors such as Documentum and Net- Right Technologies plan to roll out Web-based front ends to data stores and collaborative applications, and to add new workflow capabilities.
The traditional groupware vendors are taking extraordinary steps to make Web-based collaborative applications available to businesses that may not have the time or money to develop their own messaging infrastructure. This year, for example, several Internet service providers will begin renting Lotus Notes applications to customers. Microsoft expects to do the same with calendar, scheduling, and other groupware features of its Exchange Server.
-- Jill Gambon
Customized Apps
This year, IS professionals will have a powerful way to customize popular shrink-wrapped applications to meet their users' needs, as leading software vendors bundle M
icrosoft's Visual Basic with their applications.
Microsoft announced last fall that it has licensed its Visual Basic for Applications scripting language to 40 vendors, including Intergraph, McAfee Associates, and Symantec. Microsoft says it's in licensing negotiations with another 200 vendors. Some suppliers, such as Adobe, AutoDesk, and Visio, have already said they'll include VBA with their products this year, providing a tool to tailor applications to the needs of specific organizations or markets.
"It will provide the ability to customize what the user sees on the desktop," says Pam Smith, department manager for applications infrastructure at Merrill Lynch's private client advanced architecture group in Princeton, N.J. "VBA is playing a more important role by being able to reconfigure desktop applications without actually changing the executable."
Microsoft will also bundle VBA with a version of its Office 97 suite. To show what can be done with VBA and its ActiveX component technology, Microsoft likes to show off a customized version of Excel 97 that sports an interface for submitting an expense report. The interface hides the spreadsheet's cell structure and walks users through the process of inputting expenses.
Similarly, users and developers will be able to exploit ActiveX controls along with VBA to customize other applications, Microsoft says. "Before, it was much more difficult to create a custom solution," says Robbie Wright, business manager for Visual Basic at Microsoft. "Developers had to write applications from scratch. With VBA, the developer can concentrate on their core competence and use the functionality in these ActiveX components," he says.
Analysts agree. Says Michael Pinkney, a research director in the Seattle office of IT advisory firm Gartner Group Inc.: "This makes applications much more versatile. It gives third-party vendors a lot of leverage, both in allowing their customers to add capabilities to their products and add and use compon ents with their applications."
Self-Service Apps
One hot trend in client-server software this year will be employee self-service applications that help companies save money and become more efficient.
Leading-edge IT users already are rolling out intranet applications that let workers update their 401(k) plans, enroll in benefits programs, check vacation time, and even order office supplies--all tasks that would otherwise typically be handled by harried human-resources staff.
The idea is catching on. In a recent IDC survey of 100 large companies, 75% said self-service applications would be either important or critical to their business strategy by the year 2001.
Large client-server application vendors are racing to meet the demand. Oracle has already added Web interfaces to some applications, and SAP last month unveiled 10 self-service modules. PeopleSoft is als o working on a self-service strategy. To meet user needs while it develops products, PeopleSoft has formed interim partnerships with third-party vendors such as Edify, NetDynamics, and One Wave to extend its applications onto the Web.
Users expect self-service to save them time and money. At the New York law firm of Scadden Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom, users will be able to use Web software to model, for instance, how changes to their 401(k) contributions will affect their pay. "This will eliminate a lot of the phone calls our HR people get," says payroll manager Angie Sorscher. Scadden Arps plans to use human-resources and financials applications from Lawson Software of Minneapolis.
The rapid rise of intranets is a driving force behind the self-service phenomenon. But vendors such as Edify also offer access to information via phone, fax, and computer-based kiosks. "A manual [labor] employee typically doesn't have a desktop computer, or even a desk," says Debby Love-Sudduth, a consultan t with the Hunter Group, a San Francisco consulting firm. "It makes sense for these people to go to a kiosk to type in a change of address."
Advanta Corp. in Horsham, Pa., the country's ninth-largest issuer of credit cards, plans to use third-party software to make its PeopleSoft applications accessible via the Web and kiosks. Because training every employee would prove too costly, the company is trying to make self-service as user-friendly as possible. "Just by pushing a button, our people should be able to do just about anything," says Bill Ashworth, Advanta's director of IS. Even so, he adds, "I'm sure it will take some time getting 2,000 of our workers to feel comfortable with the new system."
-- Tom Stein
Flexible DBMS
Database management systems will gain flexibility in 1997 as software vendors deliver on a powerful new concept: add-on modules that support complex data.
The emerging p roducts go by different names--Informix's DataBlades, Oracle's Cartridges, Sybase's snap-ins, and IBM's database extenders--but serve a similar function: storing and managing unstructured data in relational databases.
The modules are being spawned by new databases such as Informix's Universal Server. By writing to Universal Server's programming interface, independent software vendors and corporate developers can create special-purpose DataBlades that manage sound, images, maps, text, and other kinds of complex data.
The idea is catching on fast. By the end of the first quarter, Informix expects almost 80 DataBlades to be available for Universal Server. Examples include MapInfo Corp.'s geospatial DataBlade, Muscle Fish LLC's audio-retrieval DataBlade, and NEC's watermark DataBlade.
"Informix is doing an effective job of establishing what you might think of as an ecosystem, a community of [independent vendors]," says Steve McClure, an analyst with IDC. "There is a synergistic relat ionship. They should be quite successful."
Oracle is chasing the same market. In December, Oracle announced a program to encourage development of add-on Cartridges that fit into Oracle's Network Computing Architecture. Oracle says 60 companies have signed up.
Oracle and Informix disagree on the best architecture for database plug-ins. Informix lets developers integrate code with the database kernel; Oracle does not. Also, while Informix's approach is database- centric, Oracle's Cartridges can be added at the client, application server, or database.
Developers downplay the differences. "There's room for both of them," says Tom Stuart, VP of sales and marketing with Virage Inc. in San Mateo, Calif., which is turning its image retrieval technology into both a DataBlade and a Cartridge.
IBM has been shipping its database extenders for DB2 since 1995. Support for audio, video, image, and text are available now; extenders for time-series and geospatial data, and for fingerpri nts, are in the works for the new year. Sybase delivered a geospatial "snap- in" for Sybase SQL Server in November; modules for imaging, text, and time-series data are due this year.
Users see promise in database add-on modules. The Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors is considering using them as a way to simplify management of images and support advanced text searches on its Web site of home listings. Says Joe Milton, system administrator with the Board of Realtors, "We see them as opening some doors that aren't available today."
-- John Foley
OLAP Via The Web
The growing popularity of Web-based tools will be a hot topic in online analytical processing in 1997. Several vendors of OLAP tools, which are widely used in data warehousing and data mining, have already jumped on the Internet bandwagon. Brio Technology Inc. offers its web.warehouse suite of Web-based OLAP tools, while Oracle is shi
pping Express 6.0 OLAP server, which supports access via standard Web browsers.
A market consolidation is likely in 1997, partly because of this move to Web browsers instead of proprietary desktop tools, and because of the competition between database vendors and specialized OLAP vendors, says Frank Gillett, a senior analyst for the Hurwitz Group Inc., an IT advisory firm in Newton, Mass. "The market is beginning a battle to decide how much of the analytical process is done on the OLAP server and how much is done on the database," he says.
Another OLAP trend will be the differentiation of tools to meet the needs of users with varying levels of experience, say users and analysts. Although some vendors have already adapted their OLAP products to work with the Web, they must make further adaptations to exploit the Web's rich content, says David Greenberg, VP of Global Internet Services for A.C. Nielsen in Chicago, which uses OLAP products to identify trends in supermarket grocery purchasing.
"OLAP vendors do suffer from a degree of myopia," Greenberg says. "Right now, they only have to work with structured information in the Web environment--but eventually they will have to learn to work with a mixture of structured and unstructured data, like multimedia and graphics."
-- Lisa Nadile
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