August 23, 1999

Servers: Thin Is In

Intel ships unit aimed at small businesses; Encanto preps broadband and ISDN units

By Aaron Ricadela

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hin clients have gotten most of the attention the past few years, but thin servers are beginning to make their mark. Intel shipped a low-priced network appliance last week, while rival Encanto Networks Inc. is preparing a pair of thin servers with fast Internet connections for delivery by next month.

Intel's InBusiness Internet Station 56K combines a built-in 56-Kbps modem with four 10-Mbps Ethernet ports for LAN and shared Internet access. The server, aimed at companies with fewer than 20 employees, is priced at $289.

Intel's original Internet Station, priced $100 higher, is aimed at slightly larger companies that want to plug existing analog or ISDN modems into the device; it also includes modem-pooling capabilities so users can use dial-up lines for functions such as faxing.

Intel's newest thin server is aimed at companies that want to consolidate multiple dial-up accounts, according to William Kilmer, strategic marketing manager in Intel's small-business networking unit. Intel offers a variety of modular small-business networking products for E-mail, Internet, storage, and printing.

Encanto next week plans to unveil a broadband version of its Encanto Web server. The product, expected to ship next month and cost less than $2,000, will support digital subscriber line and cable-modem connections for Internet access, E-mail, and Web-site building and hosting. Encanto also plans to ship an ISDN network appliance by next month. The servers join a 56-Kbps version, which is priced at $1,495 or comes free with a two-year Internet access subscription priced at about $70 per month.

Tom Blaisdell, VP of marketing at Encanto, says the broadband product will include software for maintaining online catalogs and order processing, but declined to discuss further details.

Thin servers compete more on software bundles and brand attributes than connection speed, says Pu Xiang, a senior analyst at Dataquest. "Software is the main story here," she says. "Encanto is the only player with strong E-commerce capabilities, so it has an advantage with small businesses that want to set up shop on the Web."

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