Hi Quad-K: Thanks. And these are the kinds of things I worry about...
This IMVHO is gonna hurt them a lot. (A whole lot)
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Microsoft reverses its NT course
Firm paves NT 5.0 migration path for Ver. 3.51 users.
By Christine Burns
Network World, 1/12/98
What a difference a year makes.
In a significant about-face, a top Microsoft Corp. official said the software
giant will offer a direct migration path from existing Windows NT 3.51
servers to NT 5.0 when the new version of the operating system hits the
streets late this year.
Until now, the software giant had said NT 3.51 users first would have to
upgrade all of their servers to NT 4.0 before they could move on to NT
5.0. That development angered the NT 3.51 user community, which at the
beginning of 1997 comprised more than 70% of the NT installed base
(NW, Jan. 27, 1997, page 1).
While those users wanted the distributed services scheduled to ship with
NT 5.0 - namely the Active Directory Service (ADS) - they did not want
to jeopardize the stability of existing NT 3.51 server-based networks and
pay for two major operating system upgrades in as many years.
Microsoft's Jim Allchin, senior vice president of the company's Desktop
and Business Systems Division, still maintains that users should make the
move to NT 4.0 first and then deploy the recently released NT 4.0 Option
Pack. Together, the software packages lay the groundwork for many of the
new NT 5.0 components, he said. For example, NT 4.0 has support for
the Unix-based Domain Name System, which will act as the server locator
service for ADS.
However, Allchin last week confirmed the company currently is testing a
complete set of migration tools that will allow NT 3.51 users to move
directly to NT 5.0. Allchin declined to detail what kinds of NT 3.51
migration tools the company is developing, saying only they will ''give users
as smooth a path as possible'' to NT 5.0.
''We received a lot of heat from the users who just won't budge from NT
3.51 and we've had to listen to them,'' Allchin said.
Microsoft first shipped NT 4.0 in the fall of 1996. The company no longer
sells new NT 3.51 licenses and stopped providing new service packs and
bug fixes as of December 1997. However, Microsoft still offers
day-to-day technical support for NT 3.51, and existing users can purchase
additional server licenses.
According to industry analysts, decreasing support for NT 3.51 at
Microsoft, coupled with huge growth in the NT 4.0 run rate in 1997, has significantly evened out the
installed base. Gartner Group, Inc. analyst Neil MacDonald estimated that 40% of the current NT
installed base is running NT 3.51.
However, because Microsoft has delayed the shipment of NT 5.0 until year-end at the earliest, some
previously die-hard NT 3.51 users said they now may have enough time and resources to complete
both upgrades.
Last year, Nationsbanc-CRT was one of the Microsoft customers that was concerned about forced
back-to-back upgrades for its 60 NT 3.51 servers. But Rick Shope, manager of PC technology for
the Chicago-based trading arm of Nationsbanc Corp., said he is less worried about that now, since he
already has upgraded half of his servers and 90% of his 850 workstations to NT 4.0.
''But it's still good to hear that if I have to keep some of my machines on NT 3.51 for one reason or
another, Microsoft is not going to leave me hanging when we do eventually move to 5.0,'' Shope said.
Kurt Guererro, a senior LAN architect with Northern Trust Bank, also in Chicago, is in the process of
moving as many of the bank's NT 3.51 servers over to 4.0 as possible. He said several smaller branch
offices would not get the NT 4.0 code but would need the NT 5.0 code to be included in the NT 5.0
directory tree.
''Just knowing that this tool set will be available will be helpful to our affiliate sites,'' Guererro said.
Staff writer Scott Lajoie contributed to this article.
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I hope they've planned a strategy for this in their war room
Regards,
Joe... |
