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Large or small corporations

I don't know how small corporations buy computers, I'll admit. The large ones don't buy them bundled with OS, but acquire through separate enterprise license. So Longhorn doesn't just come in riding "what we know;" it will require a distinct decision to acquire something as alien as Longhorn is pegged.

As a consequence of where I sit, I do have pretty good insight into where big business and big government are headed at the moment, simply because we're heavily exchanging documents, briefings and best practices as we wrestle with the same set of problems. Some of the trends.

1. Portals. There is still a lot of residual ERP business, but a growing trend to use portals for tailored views into enterprise information.

2. Simplified client. No need to constantly push apps, upgrades and service to the edge, then re-do and re-test every time the client OS is upgraded.

3. Unified, simplified server configuration, with clustering of like services for redundancy, graceful fall-back. One operating system - Linux - allowing mix & match from vendors of our choice, and one single set of administrators, etc.

4. J2EE. Probably a mojority for Websphere, but not all.

What are we looking at? Very, very serious consideration of unifying the desktop with the server to cut down on multiple chains of administration, training, HR specialists, career paths, support contracts. We've confirmed that, even with time to run, Open Office services extremely well. Wouldn't do it today, because somebody has to show the way. But it's not necessary today.

Now I can't comment on the scenario you play out for smaller organizations and it may be, as you suggest, that they will go their own way. But to make a Longhorn play for the enterprise, MS will have to come out marketing, and hard, to show why it would be advantageous.

By the way, labor doesn't cost "a few bucks." This is the fallacy of "Get the facts."

Posted by: IT_User   Posted on: 02/13/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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