InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
November 2, 1998
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"It's not necessarily that Microsoft has done a better job than anyone else," says Beecher. "But if you're in a world that's NT, then it's going to be easiest to use the directory that's designed to go with the desktop."
Ditto for Chevron Corp., another Windows customer. Chevron sees value in using Active Directory to cut the 11 network domains it currently maintains to one. "The fact that you've got a single logon and don't have multiple domains adds value," says Michael Wolfe, a senior engineer and team leader of the desktop team at Chevron Information Technology Co., the oil company's IT arm in San Ramon, Calif. Chevron recently completed the installation of Windows NT 4 on 20,000 desktop machines worldwide and runs NT 4 on its servers. The company is testing Windows 2000 and has budgeted funds to do more in-depth evaluations next year. Chevron could easily upgrade to Windows 2000 on its servers within 12 months of release, but it's unlikely that the recently upgraded desktops will get Windows 2000 before the year 2001, says Wolfe.
Top CriteriaRemote management and lowering the cost of owning PCs ranked first and second--just above Active Directory--when InformationWeek Research asked IT managers to rate the importance of features in Windows 2000 Server (see chart). Jim Allchin, Microsoft's senior VP of personal and business systems, once promised that companies would be able to cut the cost of PC ownership in half by running Windows 2000 on workstations and servers, along with Microsoft's forthcoming Office 2000 desktop applications suite.
Some analysts scoff at Allchin's claim. They say such savings can be achieved only if IT managers make a large investment up front. For instance, it would mean implementing Windows 2000 on all clients and servers, using Active Directory, eliminating 16-bit applications, upgrading notebooks, and equipping all PCs with Pentium II processors, says Michael Gartenberg, research director for end-user computing at Gartner Group Inc. Even then, Gartenberg says, "If you implement NT 5 and you don't lock down the desktop, you're not going to cut total cost of ownership by 50%. You're not even going to cut it by 5%."
Steve Matheys, director of IT support services at Schneider National Inc., a $2.5 billion long-haul trucking company in Green Bay, Wis., is wary of Microsoft's claim that it can reduce TCO by half. "We're skeptical enough that we're not going to commit to NT 5, but we'll test it," says Matheys. Schneider National is reconsolidating parts of its freight-management operations, which had been moved onto NT servers, back onto the mainframe.
If there's a future for Windows 2000 at Schneider National, it's most likely on the desktop PCs used to access those back-office applications. While only about 25 of the company's 4,000 desktops currently run NT, the company envisions converting the majority of its desktops to Windows 2000 in 2000. Schneider is also evaluating how many of its PCs can be converted to thin-client devices, possibly running Windows Terminal Server, to help control TCO.
While it's unclear just how much money companies stand to save by implementing Windows 2000, the need to cut the overall cost of PC environments is high on many IT managers' priority lists. Windows 2000 evaluators give TCO features a 7.1 rating on a scale where 10 is extremely important, according to InformationWeek Research.
One way Microsoft intends to lower the cost of PC ownership is through its Zero Administration Windows initiative. Features in Windows 2000 that support the initiative include IntelliMirror, a set of functions that copy user files, applications, and system configurations on a server so a user's PC can be quickly duplicated if it crashes. IntelliMirror also lets users "roam" from machine to machine by copying the files they need onto whatever machine they log on to. Another Zero Administration feature is Windows 2000's ability to install software automatically over a network.
"The installer capabilities are very key because they now let you do the self-healing and just-in-time installation," Gates said at the Professional Developers Conference. IntelliMirror, Gates says, combines the advantages of centralized management with "the benefits of local execution, the low latency and the portability, and not getting into a time-sharing mode, where you're overloading the server infrastructure."
Also high on IT managers' lists of criteria for judging Windows 2000--both workstation and server versions--are performance, ease of administration, and security. Kerberos and public key security functions will replace NT 4's domain-based security system, and Windows 2000 will come with an encrypted file system. Windows 2000's common management console will simplify management tasks for administrators while providing a common interface to third-party management products.
Long-Awaited FeaturesOn the desktop, Windows 2000 Professional will finally provide features that IT managers have been waiting for ever since Windows 95 shipped three years ago: plug-and-play support, including support for both Universal Serial Bus and IEEE 1394 bus, as well as advanced power management for notebooks.
In all, 55% of evaluators say Windows 2000 Professional will be the dominant desktop operating system for their organizations within two years of its release. This will largely come at the expense of Windows 95, which drops from being the dominant desktop operating system at 66% of Windows 2000 evaluators today to 11% two years from Windows 2000's release. Organizations with more than $100 million in annual revenue are slightly more inclined to become early adopters of Windows 2000 Professional than are smaller IT organizations.
Delay Is OK
And what if Windows 2000 doesn't ship by the middle of next year--a date that Microsoft officials have targeted, but which even they don't seem confident about? A minority of IT managers say their plans would be affected by a delay. Only about 25% of Windows 2000 evaluators say a significant delay past mid-1999 would adversely impact their organizations. Windows 2000 is already more than a year behind Microsoft's original schedule. "People have been sensitized to expect delays from Microsoft," says Dwight Davis, an analyst at IT advisory firm Summit Strategies. "And they want to make sure they've got the year 2000 [date-field problem] handled before they plan any Windows 2000 deployment."
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