Datamation, August/96 issue: NT or AS/400 (NetWare mentioned)?
Many users are finding NT to be a good file/print server and development platform, while the AS/400 is a more scalable application server.
By Mary Jo Foley
Even though IBM and Microsoft say there's a full-scale war going on between NT and AS/400 for IS professionals' market and mindshare, many users have already called a truce and decided to use both platforms in their IS departments.Of the two, NT is emerging as the preferred development system and likely replacement to NetWare in the file- and print-serving department. The AS/400 is the odds-on favorite for serving applications, especially when scalability and reliability are factors. So growing numbers of companies are using both in tandem, with Microsoft's NT-based SNA Server oftentimes used as the link between users' desktops and the AS/400s.
Data clearinghouse and telemarketer Central Talk Management of Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., for one, is using both NT and AS/400 in its IT mix. Originally, Central Talk was planning to use NT 3.51 on 130MHz Pentium machines, backed up with RAID-5 systems to process the 300,000 order-fulfillment calls that the company receives each day. But in the end, the company added a two-processor AS/400 with a 20GB DASD drive to handle the back-end processing load. Central Talk expects to add a four-processor AS/400, as well, within the next couple of months.
"Even when using Microsoft's SQL Server, there was no NT combination that could handle this level of transactions for three to four months straight," says Ollie Ayers, Central Talk's MIS director. "Very large database distributed computing just doesn't work with NT so far."
Central Talk's solution: Make the NT servers local/departmental servers for nondatabase information, handling tasks like routing TCP/IP traffic or sharing spreadsheet data. "That way, the nonessential stuff stayed off the AS/400 and freed up the communications traffic," Ayers explains.
Reliability requires AS/400
Scalability may not be the only reason to favor AS/400 as an application server--reliability may be an equally key selection criterion.
"Lots of companies were writing general ledger, purchasing, and payables software for NT, but we found some problems with NT's stability when we checked with reference accounts," says Gene Berry, CIO and vice president of information systems and services for Shenandoah Insurance in Roanoke, Va. "Numerous people said their servers were going down two to three times a day in early 1995," he says.
Even with the improvements Microsoft is making to NT 4.0, due to ship in September, Shenandoah still isn't looking at running NT even for
basic chores. "We will move to NetWare 4.1 for our file and print serving since NetWare is still a lot more mature than NT," Berry says.
On the applications side, Shenandoah Insurance is using one of IBM's high-end Advanced Server AS/400s to handle applications and
database serving for the company. "We have a lot of software choice with the AS/400, especially in financial- and insurance-specific
software," Berry says. And the company has yet to see its AS/400 go down, he adds.
The AS/400 is first and foremost a solution platform, concurs Michael Goulde, an analyst with the Patricia Seybold Group, a market-research
firm in Boston. There are myriad business applications available for the platform, "plus other services on top, like PC support and file and print services," Goulde points out. "But you do pay a premium for the integration."
Besides paying for convenience, AS/400 users also pay in terms of lack of development tools, Goulde adds. "The tools list for the AS/400, compared with NT, is very short. RPG is not a user-friendly development environment," he adds.
As a result, a number of corporations are looking to NT as a development platform for new client/server applications, Goulde says.
NT: strong on PC connectivity
At the same time, Microsoft is forging deals with a number of ISVs to port their AS/400 applications to NT. And Microsoft is ensuring that NT offers users a strong story in the area of connecting PCs to AS/400s. According to a study by the Tolly Group, a Manasquan, N.J., testing organization, use of Microsoft's NT-based SNA Server application as a way to connect PC desktops over TCP/IP to AS/400s can save up to 18% of AS/400's CPU use and improve response time by 47% over alternate IBM-developed methods (such as IBM AnyNet or direct TN5250 connections).
Last month IBM moved to reduce the gap between the level of NT's PC connectivity and AS/400's PC connectivity by delivering native TCP/IP Serial Link Internet Protocol (SLIP) support as part of OS/400 version 3, release 2. IBM officials say this capability removes the need for LAN-attached routers and gateway servers. Over the past few months, IBM also has signed a number of companies to port applications to the AS/400 that they had developed expressly for
NT.
IBMers also continue to tout AS/400's 64-bit hardware and operating-system as an advantage the platform enjoys over NT.
"Sixty-four bitness is a powerful message for customers because it lets them run 32-bit applications faster and less expensively," says Kevin Corcoran, director of competitive marketing with IBM's server group in Somers, N.Y.
Microsoft has not committed itself to a delivery date for a 64-bit implementation of NT. Even Cairo, the version of NT due in early 1998, will not be a 64-bit system, Microsoft officials have said.
But 64-bit environments aren't on most users' minds. Scalability and reliability are. Central Talk handles multiple, server-intensive tasks ranging from call routing to billing, ordering, and generation of statistical analysis. AS/400 was up to the back-end processing task, while NT worked well as routing software.
"We really were running into trouble because we are experiencing 20% growth in record accrual per year," says MIS director Ayers. "All our groups need access to all our information all the time."
It took both AS/400 and NT to fill the bill for Central Talk. And this just may be the case for more and more firms with mission-critical processing on their plates.
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Photo by Tom Salyer/Black Dot
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