Microsoft last week revealed details of its high-end version of Windows 2000 for heavy-duty computing tasks. Windows 2000 Datacenter Server will support clusters of four servers, each housing up to eight of Intel's most powerful Pentium processors. Microsoft also says Datacenter Server will recognize 32 CPUs in a symmetric multiprocessing system, though most hardware vendors say performance is likely to suffer in that configuration. Either way, it's a significant jump in processing power from the capabilities available now with Windows NT 4.0 Enterprise Edition, which maxes out at four Pentiums per server and two-node clusters.

"It is the operating system for [Microsoft customers] requiring the highest level of scalability and availability," says Michel Gambier, Microsoft's lead product manager of enterprise server products. Datacenter Server is in limited beta testing now and is due by the end of April.

IBM has its own upgrade. This week, it will introduce Version 2 Release 8 of OS/390, its 20-year-old, 32-bit mainframe operating system, formerly called MVS. Major new features include support for Gigabit Ethernet networks, the ability to refresh encryption keys through the Internet Key Exchange, and centralized management of digital certificates.

Just how do Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and OS/390 compare? OS/390 easily surpasses Datacenter Server's scalability and availability with its support for 32 clustered systems, each with up to 12 processors. While Datacenter Server will offer a programmable cascading failover feature for clustered servers, information can move automatically to any of the 32 nodes on a System 390 cluster of mainframes.

A major distributor of Windows servers, IBM will sell Datacenter Server systems and mainframes. Tom Bradicich, director of design for IBM's Netfinity NT servers, expects Datacenter Server to be used for online transaction processing for single-application, high-volume environments. But mainframes remain the top choice for running multiple, simultaneous, high-volume apps, IBM says.

Ed Delano, systems manager for Mazda North American Operations in Irvine, Calif., agrees. "It's best to run all the enterprisewide apps on a large box," says Delano, whose IBM System 390 mainframe runs a variety of custom-built legacy apps. "Adding servers is a waste of time. You get into a complex environment-you have a fleet of pickups for the job of a tractor-trailer."

Microsoft's Gambier admits Datacenter Server isn't as sophisticated at supporting multiple workloads on one box as OS/390, but says its process control feature will let administrators dynamically partition CPUs to run multiple workloads.

Some users expect Datacenter Server to reduce the complexity of managing enterprise apps running on multiple systems. Mike Hammon, senior information systems specialist at Illinois Power Co. in Decatur, Ill., says the utility runs software that maintains the power grid for 650,000 customers on one two-node NT 4.0 cluster and archiving software on another two-node cluster. Hammon says Datacenter Server would let him manage the four servers in a single cluster, increasing redundancy and reliability.

Manageability is a key issue for customers, says Jim Allchin, senior VP of Microsoft's business and enterprise division: "Customers want a set of machines to be managed as if they're one-in fact, they want the systems to manage themselves." Allchin says Microsoft is working on adding more automated management and self-repair features. "We want it so that no one has to think about managing," he says. "But we're not there yet."

Microsoft won't be there for some time, according to Meta Group analyst Bruce Allen. He says it will be years before Windows 2000's management features compare to what's already in OS/390. In addition to logical partitioning for running multiple workloads, OS/390 offers a workload manager that rapidly distributes incoming queries to available nodes, a system-resource manager that tracks all operating-system components and workloads, and a tape library manager for efficient data backup and recovery.

Mark Shackelford, manager of information systems and technology for electric motor and drive manufacturer Baldor Electric Co. in Fort Smith, Ark., says OS/390 excels at manageability. Shackelford oversees OS/390, NT, and Unix servers, but is moving some apps onto the mainframe from Unix and NT because of its lower management costs. "We need three NT administrators for every one OS/390 administrator," Shackelford says. "Tools that are very strong on OS/390 don't exist on NT."

Though Datacenter Server will come with a variety of tools for administration and maintenance, Windows 2000 will remain a labor-intensive operating system to administer, says Cal Braunstein of the Robert Francis Group, noting that it will be at least a year after the high-end package ships before it's stable. "You'll see a lot of Windows 2000 next year, but it won't be as enterprise-class as Microsoft thinks it is," says Braunstein. He says that Windows 2000 still contains some code written for single-user environments. In contrast, OS/390 was always written for multiple users.

Price Counts
But new eight-way Intel servers that can run Datacenter Server are arriving to entice IT managers who want low-priced commodity systems for high-end apps such as data warehousing, data mining, and decision support. The servers will come with Intel's Profusion chipset, which the vendor will unveil this week. Among the new systems are Compaq's Proliant 8000 and 8500 series, which start at about $20,000, and Dell Computer's PowerEdge 8450, due in September, starting at $21,000. HP says its eight-way system will have a memory-scrubbing feature that reduces Windows reboots.

Users can expect to pay between $50,000 and $100,000 for eight-way Intel servers in typical configurations. In comparison, a small mainframe that supports 500 Mips (millions of instructions per second) averages about $1.5 million. Companies will also be able to run Windows 2000 Advanced Server on eight-way servers. That's a change. Microsoft had previously said Advanced Server would be limited to four-way servers. Pricing for Advanced Server and Datacenter Server hasn't been set.

Jim Prevo, VP and CIO at Green Mountain Coffee Inc., a $55.8 million coffee distributor in Waterbury, Vt., has been testing the Proliant 8500, running an Oracle database. "Eight-way gives me headroom on the Wintel platform," Prevo says. The company's four-way database server was being pushed hard, especially during report runs, he adds.

The consensus among vendors is that mainframes and Wintel systems will continue to coexist in many large companies' data centers. IBM is even working to promote integration between the platforms; it plans to enable Netfinity nodes to operate within an OS/390 Parallel Sysplex cluster in a few years.

Hitachi Data Systems, meanwhile, this week will introduce its second-generation eight-way Intel server, based on chipset technology it licensed from Corollary before Intel acquired that company last year. HDS will follow next month with a new Skyline Trinium mainframe, a 16-way system that processes 3,200 Mips. HDS says its mainframe will remain the platform for the biggest applications-an eight-way In-tel system would need 20,000-MHz chips to compare to the Trinium, HDS says.

Rob Enderle, a VP at Giga Information Group, doesn't expect Datacenter Server to displace mainframes anytime soon. Microsoft has achieved mainframe-class performance when there's "a Microsoft development team wedded to the implementation," he says. "It shows the product is capable of doing it, not that the average company is capable of getting it there."