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To: PJ Strifas who wrote (28346)	10/2/1999 11:49:00 AM
From: PJ Strifas	Respond to of 42771

Here's another FYI: Win 2000 burns IT managers By Scott Berinato, PC Week October 1, 1999 3:25 PM PT URL: zdnet.com Now that Microsoft Corp. has pushed back the manufacturing release of Windows 2000 to November, it's likely most IT organizations won't get their hands on the final version until January. But if the final release date of the OS remains unclear, one thing is certain: Windows 2000 has forever changed the way IT looks at upgrading software. From budgeting to training to adopting new architectures to testing beta technologies, the Windows 2000 saga has created new levels of conservatism and cynicism within IT shops. "We all say we won't buy into vaporware, but that's what happened," said Matt Rice, IT manager at US Trust Bank, in Cambridge, Mass. "It has made us a more conservative organization." Rice's caution is understandable, given the combination of Windows 2000's myriad delays and the cost projections of upgrading to the operating system. For example, Entevo Corp., a developer of directory management software, estimates that migrating a 2,500-user domain to Active Directory alone will cost $750,000. Inside RC 2 Although the features in Windows 2000 have theoretically been frozen, beta testers say some minor changes are evident in Release Candidate 2, which Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) shipped this week. Microsoft officials acknowledged last month the decision to remove Component Load Balancing, a feature for distributing application components across multiple CPUs in a cluster. Instead, Component Load Balancing will be a downloadable option for Windows 2000 Advanced Server. In addition, some beta testers said that many third-party device drivers have been removed from RC2. RC2 fixes known bugs, such as problems with Office 95 shortcuts, while adding drivers for multifunction peripherals, said Craig Beilinson, a Windows product manager for Microsoft. Beilinson declined to comment on a target date for the release-to-manufacturing version or on whether the company plans a third release candidate. He added that if Microsoft decides to ship an RC3, it would be smaller in scope than RC2, which shipped to 650,000 testers. Delays wreak havoc Regardless of when Windows 2000 ultimately ships, some customers believe Microsoft will find it difficult to live up to the expectations created around the operating system. "The key to having high customer satisfaction is to underpromise and overdeliver," said Mike Sax, president of Sax Software Inc., in Seattle. Sax is both a partner of Microsoft and a beta tester of Windows 2000. "But Microsoft set the bar so high, they can never live up to it." Microsoft's missed Windows 2000 deadlines also have wreaked havoc on IT budgets. Many IT shops have been forced to readjust their allocations for the upgrade at each delay. Some firms that planned to jump directly from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000 ended up spending budgeted Window 2000 money on NT service packs. At one aerospace company, the service packs improved NT performance to the point that the company has put its Windows 2000 plans on hold. "We just lost our training budget (for Windows 2000) because the quarter we budgeted it for came and went with no product," said an IT manager at the aerospace company who requested anonymity. "We're not budgeting for training on products anymore. We're just going to allocate a per-staffer budget for the entire year." The long ordeal of getting Windows 2000 out the door has forced Microsoft to take a fresh look at product development. "We are not interested in many little upgrades -- that destroys continuity and makes it hard to support customers," Beilinson said. "At the same time, it's hard to be in the situation we're in today with all the anticipation for Windows 2000."