InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
August 30, 1999
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Applications Payback
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Microsoft maintains that such problems are exceptional and that the majority of desktop applications won't require changes to run on Windows 2000. According to Summit Strategies, 90% of 500 desktop applications Microsoft deems most critical have passed Microsoft's own internal tests for basic compatibility.
Microsoft also says it's working with hundreds of software vendors to help them design applications that take advantage of new features of Windows 2000 and ensure compatibility. Willingham says Windows 2000 will be compatible with the top 10 apps in all major categories, including enterprise databases, enterprise resource planning applications, and network-management systems.
Dwight Davis, an analyst at Summit Strategies, says the fact that the Readiness Program exists at all shows that many Windows applications must be modified before theyrun on the new operating system. Software vendors must make extensive modifications if they want to exploit the many new features Windows 2000 will provide. "It's keeping some people at Microsoft up at night," says Davis. "There's some scrambling going on, especially on server-side applications."
Davis also asserts that the Application Specification is coming late in the game, and many software developers aren't certain how to interpret the guidelines. "It tries to be prescriptive to all types of applications, which doesn't make sense," says Pat Gibney, director of competitive projects and Windows 2000 at IBM. Pfizer's Parsons gives credit to Microsoft for publishing guidelines, but will hold off using the specification until the company begins delivering Windows 2000 service packs--updates that fix bugs and enhance features. Parsons figures Microsoft will change the specification in line with those enhancements.
Like a lot of companies, Pfizer will make a gradual migration to Windows 2000, starting with the Professional version on the desktop, followed by Server and Advanced Server versions. Parsons believes client installation will be relatively straightforward but anticipates more work with the server deployments. One complication, he says, is that Active Directory creates a lot of organizational politics because it gives people access to information on a global level. It forces companies to decide who gets access to which directories, how much information is published where, and who controls publication. "Microsoft is slipping into new territory, and they should," says Parsons. "However, a lot of people are saying, `leave that space to us.'"
IBM has made broad efforts to come to market early with Windows 2000-ready products, and has even launched a Windows 2000 consulting practice. IBM has been working with Microsoft since 1997 to ensure that its major middleware platforms, including DB2, MQSeries, WebSphere, and Tivoli Systems management products, are tightly integrated with Windows 2000. "We have a mutual interest with Microsoft in making the most of Windows 2000," says IBM's Gibney. "The business opportunity is excellent."
Oracle says it's making sure migration of its flagship database, Oracle8i, to Windows 2000 will be a seamless transition for its customers. It's also preparing its application server and developer tools for Windows 2000 availability. True to its thin-client, fat-server strategy, Oracle says server editions of Windows 2000 will be more important to its customers than the client version. "From a server perspective, it's a more robust, scalable, and mature NT, which everyone is looking forward to," says Dom Lindars, director of Oracle's server and Internet platform marketing.
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Consolidated Edison Co., the $7 billion energy utility that serves the New York metropolitan area, has bumped into a few of these compatibility problems in early testing of Windows 2000 on a handful of workstations. John Scannello, director of IT planning at Con Edison, says he was unable to port Norton Antivirus from Symantec Corp. to the platform. Symantec confirms the problem, but says the next release of its enterprise product, Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition Version 7, due to ship in about eight weeks, will be Windows 2000 compatible. Scannello's team plans to tackle applications testing more broadly in a couple of months.
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To meet this goal, Microsoft is pouring as much as $40 million into its Readiness Program for Applications and Developers, in which more than 600 software vendors have enrolled. The Readiness Program provides a range of development, training, and testing resources, such as access to Microsoft-sponsored testing labs and one-on-one support over the Web. Also, Microsoft released in June a Windows 2000 Application Specification that establishes guidelines for developing applications that make the most of the new platform's capabilities.
Enterprise application vendor Baan Co. confirms that it faces different migration issues than desktop application vendors, and that the changeover will take longer for larger server applications such as its ERP suite. David George, a development manager at Baan's Microsoft collaboration lab in Redmond, says Baan plans to release a Windows 2000 "porting set," which he describes as a layer of software between the business applications and the underlying operating system. It will let Baan applications work with Active Directory, Microsoft Management Console, and new security services, all contributing to simplified administration of the Baan environment. The porting set, which will be a standard part of the next Baan product release, will be available free to customers and take less than one day to install, George says.
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