InformationWeek

December 14, 1998

Most Important Products Of 98

Most Important Products Of 98:

Enterprise Application Integration Software

Teamware

Enterprise JavaBeans

SQL Server 7.0

Network-Attached Storage

Application Servers

NetWare 5

Customer-Management Applications

Midmarket ERP

Transaction Management

Runners-Up

Runners-Up
There were plenty of technologies that made a splash this year that didn't make our final cut. Here, in no particular order, are our runners-up.

Streaming Media
In 1998, streaming media began to look sharper, sound clearer, and find its way onto more desktops. RealNetworks Inc. in November shipped RealSystem G2, its most significant upgrade. G2 bumped RealSystem's video frame rate up to 30 frames per second, matched the sound quality of a low-end CD player, and gained technology that adjusts stream rates to each user's available bandwidth.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft turned its NetShow media player into Windows Media Player, a built-in feature of Windows that supports all major streaming-media file formats. On the back end, Microsoft turned its NetShow server into NetShow Services, a feature of Windows NT 4.0, and debuted NetShow Theater Server, which streams video as fast as 8 Mbps over fast networks.

Handheld Devices
Windows CE and 3Com Palm devices have started to make inroads into mainstream IT as data-collection devices and ultra-thin clients for E-mail and other applications. While much of the attention paid to the handheld computing market has been focused on 3Com's Palm III and Microsoft's palm-sized PC initiative, even more compact handheld devices have emerged, such as the Rex Pro, a credit card-sized gizmo introduced in September by Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc. The 1.4-ounce device could be a formidable contender to the popular PalmPilot for calendar and address book functions.

Users can also download E-mail from a PC and edit it on the Rex Pro--and it plugs into a notebook PC Card slot or connects the device's docking station to a PC through the serial port. The Rex Pro's 512 Kbytes of memory stores up to 6,000 records.

Linux
The open software movement gained business credibility this year, as Linux began to make real enterprise inroads--mostly at the expense of Windows NT and Unix operating systems for the Intel platform. Being free helps, but it was the promise of real software-vendor support that broke the ice with corporate IT.

Linux got that support from Informix, Intel, Netscape, Oracle, and Sybase, among others. Intel and Netscape invested in Red Hat Software Inc., one of the leading Linux software vendors; Informix, Oracle, and Sybase all said this year they would port their leading database products to Linux--Sybase's Enterprise Adaptive Server is bundled with Red Hat's latest Linux distribution.

Windows CE
Microsoft's Windows CE made headway in 1998 with the shipment of version 2.0, which includes support for Windows thin-client machines and Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition. In November, Microsoft also said Qualcomm Inc. will build smart cellular phones based on CE. Users will be able use the phone displays to access E-mail and calendar information.

Microsoft is making modifications to CE that will convert it into a true real-time system, which can be embedded in machine controllers and other shop-floor equipment. In addition, Microsoft added support for Jupiter subnotebook-sized devices, which will likely be more popular with users because of their more PC-like features.

XML
The Extensible Markup Language holds great promise for improving the structure of data on the Internet, and most software vendors were eager to show support for it in 1998. XML is a meta language--it describes information about information. It allows more programming tags than HTML and therefore can be used to describe information more precisely.

While XML use is still in the initial phases, early adopters indicate the language has many uses in areas such as human resources and procurement. Enterprises experimenting with XML range from publishing to financial services to health-care companies. As it gains momentum in 1999, XML will surely be a major force in shaping the next generation of Internet applications.

Enterprise Document Management
While the most exciting things that happened in document management and workflow this year were generated by startups and smaller players, the two Leviathans of enterprise document management systems had the highest impact. FileNet Corp., buffeted for several years by several acquired applications that were roughly integrated, this year consolidated and rationalized its spectrum of offerings, giving them smoother integration, especially visually, and a catchy name: Panagon.

FileNet's big rival, Documentum Inc., continued its almost inconceivable growth by advancing its signature strategy: rolling out mostly finished vertical applications that require less customization than a raw EDMS platform.

Hot-Pluggable PCI
Hot-pluggable PCI is an important step toward decreasing downtime of Intel-based servers. The peripheral bus technology, created by Compaq and later adopted as an industry standard, lets IT managers replace PCI cards without having to power down a server. Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM are among the companies that introduced PCI hot-pluggable capabilities in servers during 1998.

Some vendors are waiting for Microsoft to build hot-pluggable PCI drivers in future versions of Windows NT, rather than develop the drivers themselves. But more server vendors could develop their own drivers in coming months, as it seems Microsoft won't have the technology ready until sometime after the launch of Windows 2000 in late 1999.

Oracle8
Regardless of how you approach the technology "platform" issue, one product almost always involved in the discussion is Oracle's database-management system. Whether your interest is in server operating systems, desktop computers, enterprise resource planning packages, or clustering technology, Oracle's database is somehow in the mix. If Microsoft's SQL Server 7.0 database is the hot challenger, Oracle's database is still king.

Oracle is positioning the latest release of its flagship product--Oracle8i, which ships this month--as a strategic platform for computing on the Internet. New features in Oracle8i include a Java virtual machine, development tools incorporating Internet standards, and an Internet File System for storing Web pages and other data. What about the fast-growing market for data marts and data warehouses? Oracle8i has that covered with a new metadata layer and graphical design tools.

Xeon
Intel's Pentium II Xeon chip has gone a long way to provide Windows NT boxes with the performance gains that are winning them credibility as true enterprise servers and technical workstations. It's the first chip that Intel designed for servers and workstations from the ground up, with a larger and faster L2 cache than earlier Pentium II designs, and processor speeds as fast as 450 MHz. The chip is designed to scale as high as four processors in a system, something only the much slower Pentium Pro chips were capable of doing. Benchmark tests by some vendors have indicated a 60% performance increase in four-way Xeon systems over four-way Pentium Pro systems, and a 10% increase in performance over eight-processor Pentium Pro systems. The chip line came out a few months later than expected in 1998, primarily due to supply shortages, but by early fall vendors were offering systems that scale up to four processors. In the first half of 1999, hardware suppliers plan to offer eight-way Xeon servers.

Security Management
Security tools are well-established in the market. But the number and variety of security tools added to already complex IT infrastructures are creating management headaches. This year, the enterprise management vendors Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, and Tivoli Systems stepped up their efforts with new products and tight integration with existing security tools. They and others--including BMC Software, Bull Information Systems, and Platinum Technology--have earmarked security as their top priority.

The integration of security and enterprise management ultimately means better security. It eliminates the need to keep an eye on multiple consoles, and lets users leverage administrative capabilities, such as software distribution, that already exist in enterprise-management platforms to do things like update software and secure systems.

Finally, the ability to correlate a network event, such as a surge in IP traffic, with a security event, such as a hacker trying to break in, could ultimately let companies find and then fortify any weak spots in their IT infrastructures.

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