Early Datacenter Adopters Replacing NT, Not Unix - Software Review - Evaluation

Early adopters of Windows 2000 Datacenter Server plan to use the high-end operating system to overcome the limitations of NT 4.0.

Positioning Windows 2000 Datacenter Server as a Unix killer, Microsoft is targeting the high-end business traditionally reserved for Unix vendors.

But interviews with early adopters of Datacenter indicate that initial deployments are primarily by customers building on the capabilities of their Windows NT 4.0 environments. The more dramatic rip and-replace Unix scenarios that Microsoft's marketing executives dream about is not the prevailing trend.

To get a better idea of the role that Datacenter will play in the enterprise, ENT followed up its Windows 2000 Deployment Survey (see the January issue) by interviewing IT personnel from nine organizations that are deploying or preparing for Datacenter Server. In all but two cases the respondents were replacing Windows servers only.

Datacenter's ability to scale up to 32 processors and 64 GB of RAM, along with its partitioning and four-node failover clustering capabilities, gave Microsoft hope that it would be able to attract customers from the Unix crowd.

Yes, survey respondents indicate that the new features are what drew their organizations to Datacenter, but instead of replacing Unix systems the users plan to use Datacenter's reliability and power to overcome traditional Windows NT shortcomings.

Predictably, the number of planned Datacenter deployments lags significantly behind the planned deployments of the considerably less expensive Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server. In the ENT Windows 2000 deployment survey of about 720 organizations, fewer than 60 had plans to install Datacenter.

Of the nine that ENT was able to interview, one Data center Server was being deployed for every three and a half Windows 2000 Server deployments and every five Advanced Server deployments.

Currently, only one respondent is running Datacenter. The others are in the process of deploying Datacenter, with some slated to be operational within the month. Others aren't expecting it to be up until the end of 2001. Whether or not Microsoft's high-end play dethrones Unix, the early adopters appreciate that Micro soft has addressed the tradition al weaknesses of Windows NT with Datacenter.

One significant testament of Datacenter being accepted as an enterprise class system is its use by a division of the Department of Defense as its main operating system. Ed Kera, enterprise architect at The Mitre Corp., an IT consulting company for the Department of Defense, says this particular division within the DOD controls the large aircraft that transport cargo and troops around the world. The agency will be deploying between 16 and 24 versions of Datacenter. Kera expects the system to be operational within the year.

"The reliability and performance of Datacenter attracted us," Kera says. "We're trying to reach 99.999 percent reliability, so the four-node clustering is vital. We're going to be replicating data all over the world, so all the Datacenter [boxes] are going to be clustered and communicating with each other."

Another prominent reason for choosing Datacenter is that it's a mainstream server. Like many large corporations, the Department of Defense develops its own applications internally. "The dramatic increase in reliability in Datacenter attracted us. But the fact that it's a mainstream server also played a big part, because it's easier for our developers to work in the Datacenter environment and develop applications for it," Kera says.

Datacenter's four-node clustering feature also appealed to eLoyalty, a consulting firm that builds customized telephone response centers. Over the past year or so, eLoyalty has evolved into an ASP by hosting, running, and managing integrated voice response (IVR) centers. The IVR centers run on an Oracle repository running HP-UX, while the applications run on Windows NT 4.0.

As the company grew as an ASP, eLoyalty encountered one major problem: "We can't go any further with NT 4.0," says Scott Pederson, senior consul tant at eLoyalty.

Because of its four-node clustering capabilities, Datacenter will let eLoyalty achieve the reliability and uptime that are paramount to its continued growth as an ASP. Pederson says the initial plan is to have two to four machines running Datacenter, but it could go up to 30 and beyond, depending on customer demand.

"We're going to be using Datacenter for load balancing Web servers," Pederson says. "As an NT person, I'm exploring the option of clustering, because we're finding the XML applications we're running are not that stable. The biggest thing that attracted us about Datacenter is four-node clustering. The multinode clustering in Datacenter can ensure that our systems are always running. This is the freedom that Datacenter could allow us if it's cost efficient."

ELoyalty has yet to implement Datacenter, so whether or not it finds four-node clustering to be cost-efficient is still up in the air. But one major automotive company has been down the four-node clustering road and has not found the results to its liking.

Jim Johnston, a senior architect at Commerce One, is working as a consultant for the Fortune 500 company. Johnston says the automotive company deployed Datacenter as its SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange platform. To ensure high availability, the company decided to take the clustering approach.

"The ability to go from two nodes to four-node clustering, 16 gigs of RAM, and process affinity were the main things that appealed to us," Johnston says. "The downside to four-node clustering is its cost. We were a little surprised how expensive it was."

The cost was so high that the auto motive company replaced Datacenter in some cases.

"We replaced six versions of Datacenter with Whistler Datacenter beta edition, and we kept two versions of Datacenter," Johnston says. "Whistler Datacenter beta edition has four-node clustering, plus it's free."

That's a short-term solution since Whistler, the code name for the next version of Windows 2000, is free only until the product ships. Microsoft considered putting four-node clustering into Whistler Advanced Server, but has not publicly announced any decisions about that.

A few survey respondents are taking advantage of Datacenter's abilities to consolidate their IT departments.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) is in the process of using Datacenter, Advanced Server, and Win dows 2000 Server at test sites, with plans to move to the new platforms by the end of 2001. Penny Gold, a computer specialist at NSWC, says the center will be using Datacenter to put some major database centers on the Web.

"The power and flexibility of Data center are what appealed to us," she says. "It's not really a new role, we're just using it for consolidating. It's powerful enough that we can use it as our database server and free up our other servers to perform other functions."

Don Nelson, LAN analyst for Hennepin County, Minnesota, cited similar reasons. Currently, Hennepin County is running five test versions of Datacenter. Nelson expects Datacenter to be operational in a year and a half, and it will be used as a file-and-print server and for SQL Server.

Another new feature for the platform is system partitioning, which Unisys Corp. brings to the party with its 32-processor ES7000. The Santa Ana Unified School District will be using this capability to get one ES7000 to perform the role of two servers.

"We'll be deploying one 16-processor Datacenter by midyear. It's going to be the mainframe system that does the student administration for almost 60,000 students," says Paul Bewley, director of the IT center for the district. "We're going to use the other half for financials, but that won't be done until next year."

Microsoft's decision to go after high end customers has had an effect on Windows NT software companies, too. One example is Millbrook, a software company that produces Beacon, a Windows NT-specific management application for the insurance industry.

Cisco Rebelo, network manager for Millbrook, says his company is in the process of running tests on Datacenter to ensure that it can begin to sell Beacon to higher-end insurance companies. "Right now, we couldn't support someone like Allstate," he says. "They just have too much data, it would crash our server."

With 32-processor support, that will no longer be the case. Assuming that everything goes well, Millbrook will be able to follow through on its business plan to sell Beacon to large insurance companies. "Microsoft has never had an operating system of this class," Rebelo says. "We work along with our companies in testing out our software. If it runs properly on Datacenter, we will recommend it to our customers. We're using Datacenter to see if we can stay on the Intel platform while moving up the large customer base."

All these user plans indicate that a "Unix killing" Datacenter is more figurative than literal. Most replacements of Unix systems with Datacenter will mostly occur in the slower, traditional IT replacement model -- leaving existing systems alone as long as they work, and adopting newer technologies for new applications. Users are showing that as they grow more comfortable with the Windows 2000 Datacenter Server platform, they will build their existing Windows applications up into the performance ranges traditionally associated with Unix. Then they'll con sider Datacenter for new applications that previously would have required Unix systems.

Data Points

EnT surveyed readers in late December about Windows 2000 migration plans. Several questions focused on high-end Windows plans. Here are some of the trends discovered:

* 80 percent will migrate Windows IT 4.0 Server, Enterprise Edition, to Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

* 33 percent will upgrade Windows NT 4.0 Server directly to Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

* 20 percent will upgrade Windows nT 4.0 Server, Enterprise Edition, to Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.

* 9 percent will upgrade from Windows nT 4.0 Server to Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.

Companies deploying Windows 2000 Datacenter Server are spending much greater sums to make the migration. About 35 percent plan to spend more than $1 million. Only 13 percent of the overall survey group plan to spend that much.

COPYRIGHT 2001 101 Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group