NT overkill - Microsoft Windows NT operating system - News Briefs - Product Information - Brief Article

Too many corporate IS departments are getting too deeply into Windows NT too soon.

That's the word from IT analysts at the Gartner Group. They reveal that 60% of their clients are putting in NT, when only half that percentage should be doing so at this stage.

"We think NT is a definite for 2002," said Senior Analyst Scott Winkler, speaking at a recent Gartner workshop on the future of NT. But he expressed serious reservations about the current herd-mentality stampede by corporations apparently enchanted by NT's much-vaunted total cost of ownership (TCO) advantages. While the TCO urge is laudable, it is too often misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Gartner points out that Microsoft's Zero Administration Windows (ZAW) initiative is clearly geared toward NT. But the analysis firm claims it will be four years before all the ZAW benefits are realized. According to Wrinkler, NT currently takes several times the person-hours it takes to get, say, Windows 95 up and running. And it is "unaware" of laptops. "The best I can say about NT on laptops is that it boots up. Other than that, it's a disaster," he said.

Gartner names the following situations where NT can be truly effective now:

* Where 10 to 15 applications are running concurrently.

* Where all-new hardware is being rolled out.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Wiesner Publications, Inc.
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