Hey,
I just wanted to add this one to the impressive list of articles you posted:
URL:http://www.novell.com/netware5/giga_nwnt.html
Upgrade to Windows NT From NetWare Can Triple Users' Costs
Question: What are the migration costs and other issues associated with migrating from NetWare to Windows NT?
Answer: This question is becoming increasingly more common as corporate users grapple with migration issues. This has become especially problematic recently given the ever-elusive ship date of Windows 2000 (formerly Windows NT 5.0) which will contain the Active Directory.
Meanwhile though, users are confronted with the proverbial fork in the road.
Currently, a wholesale migration to Windows NT Server 4.0 will cost, on average, two to three times more than upgrading to NetWare 5.0. For the purposes of this inquiry, Giga will confine its comparison of NetWare vs. NT Server migration costs to NT Server 4.0 ONLY, since that version is the only one currently shipping. With a projected ship date of the fourth quarter of 1999, Windows 2000 remains vaporware.
The cost increments of an NT migration are across the board. They include:
- New capital expenditures associated with the need to add additional hardware
- Higher network administration expenditures
- Additional third-party products to achieve the same level of functionality currently found in NetWare and UNIX systems
- Ongoing maintenance costs
Giga's conclusions are based on lengthy conversations and feedback from dozens of Fortune 1000 accounts as well as mid-sized firms during the last 12 to 18 months.
Additionally, Giga has spoken with several large corporate accounts that attempted to fully replace their existing networking operating systems (NetWare, UNIX, OS/2 Warp Server and even the legacy Banyan VINES) with Windows NT 4.0 and were forced to stop in mid-upgrade because they could NOT achieve the same level of enterprise functionality with the Windows NT Server. It is important to note here that Giga's references to Windows NT Server's performance refers to NT when installed as the enterprise operating system across the entire corporate intranet/extranet. Windows NT Server remains a superior departmental application server. But until Windows 2000 ships with the Active Directory, advanced clustering and scalability features and Kerberos security, it is simply not the functional equivalent of more established network operating systems such as NetWare and UNIX.
Specifics
Now, let's examine the specifics in terms of actual cost breakdowns. Keep in mind that the following figures are APPROXIMATE and will vary according to a number of external factors particular to your organization. These factors include size, scope, current licensing and support arrangements and even geographic location.
Performance: Windows NT 4.0 has far less horsepower, load balancing and scalability capabilities than NetWare 4.0 and 5.0. Thus, many of the Fortune 1000 users Giga queried reported that Windows NT 4.0 couldn't handle as many users on a single file server as NetWare 4.0. While the actual number of client users attached to a single file server varies according to applications that are running on the server, the consensus among the corporate sites Giga spoke with is that NetWare 4.0 can accommodate roughly twice as many users as Windows NT 4.0.
One vice president of IS at a large New England-based bank told Giga that he currently has 200 users attached to a single legacy 466MHz server running NetWare 4.0 and has experienced no problems. This same user said there's no way he could presently achieve this same level of performance with a Windows NT 4.0 server. Translation: expect to buy up to twice as many Windows NT 4.0 servers as NetWare 4.0 and 5.0 servers. You can see how quickly costs can soar in an organization of 2,000, 5,000 or 10,000+ client users.
Another performance factor to consider is that the underlying network protocols also affect Windows NT 4.0 performance. Windows NT Server 4.0 currently has an effective speed limit of about 80Mbits per second. Thus, an organization that has Gigabit Ethernet installed would not realize any boosts in performance. NT 4.0's protocol is really an enhanced version of the older LAN Manager. This limitation will be eradicated in Windows 2000, which Microsoft claims it is optimizing to handle 921Mbits per second.
Reliability: IS managers said that it's no contest. At this point, their NetWare servers can generally go weeks and even months without crashing. By contrast, it has been widely reported that many businesses must reboot their Windows NT 4.0 Servers sometimes on a daily basis.
Administrative Costs: This includes the salary for network administrators, training and ongoing maintenance. When faced with the decision to either upgrade its existing complement of NetWare servers or migrate to Windows NT, one corporation in Dallas with 3,000 client users opted to stick with NetWare until at least after Windows 2000 ships. Its cost breakdown as related to Giga is as follows: Annual network administrators' salaries for NetWare managers averaged about $50,000 each compared with $70,000 for Windows NT. When it comes to salaries, geography will play a big part. Obviously, network administrators in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and other top-15 markets will command a higher premium than a network administrator in a small rural town.
The reason for the salary disparity boils down to a simple supply and demand issue. Namely, Windows NT is the newer operating system with a high adoption rate. Yet, there are far fewer Microsoft Certified Engineers (MSCEs) than Certified NetWare Engineers (CNEs) so they can demand and get a premium for their services. Businesses that opt to train or re-train their NetWare administrators to monitor Windows NT 4.0 networks can expect to pay three to four times, in the initial 12 months after installation, than they would to simply continue with NetWare 4.0.
Another current hidden cost of Windows NT 4.0 vs. NetWare 4.0 and 5.0 is the time spent administering the network. It takes far fewer administrators --- about a two to one margin --- a lot less time to administer NetWare networks than it does to oversee a Windows NT 4.0 network. The big differentiator here is Novell Directory Services, an advanced database directory that enables administrators to make moves, adds and changes across the enterprise. Microsoft's current Domain Directory Structure is far more limited in scope and capabilities. Network administrators who spoke with Giga said they avoided Windows NT Server Domains "like the pain." One even said he would "prefer the prospect of root canal without Novocain" to administering a large Windows NT Server 4.0 network with multiple domains.
Obviously, Microsoft's Windows 2000 marketing campaign promises that the Active Directory will lower companies' total cost of ownership (TCO) by 50 percent. Since the product won't be available for another year, that remains to be seen.
But that's certainly not the case right now. The director of IS at a New Jersey-based national health care organization reported that by utilizing NetWare's NDS, he was able to designate a single network administrator to oversee 3,000 users at 60 sites nationwide. This same administrator estimated that he would have to have at least five dedicated network administrators to monitor those 60 sites using Windows NT 4.0's Domain directory structure.
Overall, the Dallas corporation Giga spoke with indicated that total administrative costs (including salaries, ongoing network maintenance and training) are $275,000 annually for NetWare compared with an estimated $675,000 to upgrade to Windows NT 4.0.
Similarly, a network analyst at an international pharmaceutical firm with $6 billion in annual revenue and 12,000 users told Giga that the cost of implementing a NetWare 4.x or 5.0 network was half the price of Windows NT 4.0. For his organization, a switch to Windows NT 4.0 would have cost $500,000. This network analyst estimated that he would have had to double his present contingent of 15 NetWare administrators to at least 30 managers if he were to migrate to Windows NT.
Recommendations
Giga advises corporate customers that are interested in maintaining the best price/performance model to stay with NetWare at least until Windows 2000 ships. If Windows 2000 ships in the fourth quarter of 1999, which is the current prediction, Giga believes it is best to adopt a conservative course. That is, do not upgrade to the new Microsoft NOS environment until Year 2000 issues have been dealt with and until at least the first Windows 2000 Service Pack ships.
Copyright 1998 Giga Information Group Inc. |
