Alpha Platform Gets Vote Of Confidence

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March 23, 1998

Alpha Platform Gets Vote Of Confidence

Automatic Data Processing awards Digital $100M contract for AlphaServers, services

By Martin J. Garvey

ot everyone is concerned about the long-term viability of the Alpha platform.

The dealer services group of Automatic Data Processing Inc. will shell out $100 million over the next three years for several thousand Digital Equipment AlphaServers, with an option to extend the contract through 2003. The group, which services more than 18,000 car and truck dealers worldwide, is buying the 64-bit Digital Unix servers to speed processing of monthly sales reports, accounting, inventory, customer service, factory communications, and other processes.

Activities that took three hours with the group's old Motorola 88110-based servers, such as end-of-month data backups, are expected to take about 20 minutes with the Alpha systems. The dealer services group will use the Digital servers in two configurations: The Millennia3 Series 9200 scales from eight to 350 users, and the Series 9300 supports from 350 to 1,700 users.

"We'll continue to purchase the latest, highest-megahertz processors and expect to work with Alpha for the foreseeable future," says Miles Lewitt, VP of global systems for ADP's dealer services group. He says he's confident that Compaq Computer will continue to support the platform following its purchase of Digital and that Intel will drive improvements to the chip now that it's responsible for Alpha manufacturing.

Lewitt says his team evaluated all the major server vendors before choo sing Digital. In addition to performance, he says, "we wanted a commitment to Windows NT and Unix, a commitment to Intel, and a vendor we could purchase desktop systems, NT servers, and Unix servers from." The ADP unit says it also likes Digital's Unix-to-NT integration services.

Laurie McCabe, an analyst with Summit Strategies in Boston, says the Alpha platform is secure. "There's a large installed base out there," she says, "and nothing will happen to pull the rug out from under everyone."