David, your remark about the future of the Netbox is a good topic. I'd like to kick off that topic with this from Gruntal.
Wednesday, March 13, 1996.
NOTE: Today we have an article by David Takata
Research Associate to Roxanne Googin,
our technology analyst!
Technology Sector-
INVESTING IN 1996
"Technology investing in 1996 will likely require a radically different strategy than the dartboard approach that generated 30% returns in 1995. We believe a focused technology portfolio should include stocks from two distincts trends: (1) the centralization and management of data and (2) the growth of the internet.
For the first time, big system processing price per MIPS is on par with desktop PCs. The significance of this event is not likely to escape the eyes of MIS department managers. Just when these managers wonder why they should upgrade their PCs (to have more unused functions in their word processors? ), the network-centric computing model takes shape. In such a model, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, is fond of saying, "the network is the computer."
Data warehouse play into this model as large quantities of
corporate data are stored en masse and are shared by users across the
enterprise. Data warehousing is just now becoming popular and will likely move from the early implementation stage to a more widespread customer base, particularly since the MIPS per dollar and cost of ownership are increasingly attractive. We believe that the data warehousing market can sustain 50% annual growth into the year 2000. Corporate "intranets" or internal Web-type networks also enable end-users to get smart very quickly about products and events taking place within their organizations. Companies such as Silicon Graphics use the Intranet to enable all employees to access their up-to-date 401(k) status, and also provide the sales and service employees remote access to SGI product and competitor information while in the field. The low cost implementation and immediate benefit are why a
Forrester Research survey recently found that while only 16% of the
organization polled currently have an intranet, another 26% have plans
to install such a system, and an additional 24% are currently in
evaluation stage.
Extending the corporate reach is what the internet is all about. Stuck
for years in the "techie," government, and university worlds under the
UNIX language, the Internet is now exploding with new users since the
advent of World Wide Web. With the Web, users can graphically access the world's data in real-time, using nothing but a simple PC (an Intel 386 or 486-class PC will do) and a modem. This is a radical shift from the recent " buy the biggest horsepower PC with the fastest CD-ROM"
paradigm. The network-centric computing model, evidenced by the popularity Internet, suggest that speed of the network or " bandwidth" is the issue, not local processing power found in the PC. Thus, we expect a continuation of the internet infrastructure build-out and acceleration in corporate networking purchases over the coming years to accommodate the needs of bandwidth hungry end-users."
David Takata, Feb 29th 1996
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Above is from Gruntal. There is plenty more to say, later. |
