Betting on BackOffice?

In the high-stakes game of Windows NT Server suites, Microsoft's BackOfficeis the standard by which all others are measured. But Microsoft faces stiffcompetition from such big names as IBM, Netscape, and Oracle (for information onother vendors that are looking for a piece of the action, see the sidebar, "Breaking into the Server Suite Game"). To follow thegame, you need to know what IBM, Netscape, and Oracle have to offer and howMicrosoft is prepared to maintain its kingpin status.

Playing Your Best Hand
Although server products form the foundation of today's enterprises, IBM,Microsoft, Netscape, and Oracle offer a host of other products that go beyondtraditional server suites. Table 1, page 72, lists the major product lines foreach vendor. These vendors know that if they can get you to buy their serversolutions, they can probably sell you other components down the road. Althoughyou can mix and match vendor products to a limited extent, getting one vendor'sproducts to work together is usually easier than mixing products from severalvendors--at least you know where to point the finger if you have problems. Butwhere does that leave you? In the end, you're the one holding the cards and youhave to decide which hand to play. So is choosing a server suite a gamblingproposition? It doesn't have to be if you can make an informed decision aboutwhat suite suits you.

Anyone But Microsoft
IBM, Netscape, and Oracle are all part of the unofficial ABM (Anyone ButMicrosoft) alliance, and each vendor has strong commitments to the NT platform.IBM is training its sights on NT throughout the company. DB2 honcho Janet Perna,general manager of data management in IBM's Software Solutions Division, saysthat IBM's sales force is focusing on NT. Gian Carlo Bisone, IBM's softwaremarketing general manager, is working with channel resellers and distributors toprovide training on IBM products such as Lotus Notes and DB2 running on NT. BillReedy, IBM vice president of integrated solutions, puts IBM's NT strategysuccinctly, "Whatever the market says counts."

Microsoft's arch-rival, Netscape, recognizes the importance of the NT marketfor its servers. According to Ben Horowitz, Netscape's group product manager ofserver product marketing, Netscape's servers are a better investment because ofthe price, packaging, and architecture. Horowitz notes another advantage: "Wedon't charge extra to install our servers on different systems."

Even Oracle is hopping on the NT bandwagon. The company now has a special150-person NT sales force and is porting its Oracle Open Gateways to NT. Withthis commitment to the NT platform, IBM, Netscape, and Oracle are significantlyadding to and improving their product lines. Let's take a closer look at eachvendor's offerings.

IBM
IBM has embraced NT and open systems with a vengeance. According to SteveMills, general manager of IBM's Software Solutions Division, with its SoftwareServers (originally code named Eagle), "IBM offers more NT products, withbetter performance and more functionality than any other vendor in themarketplace." However, not all seven Software Server components areavailable for NT yet. The components are Communications Server, DB2 DatabaseServer, Directory and Security Server, Internet Connection Server, Lotus Domino4.5 Web Server, Systems Management Server, and Transaction Server.

With its Software Servers for NT, IBM hopes to gain new customers, provideeasy connectivity to host data, and provide a clear path for NT customers toupgrade to AIX. IBM sees itself as uniquely qualified to offer true enterprisesolutions that release content from mainframes and minicomputers, RISC systems,and PCs into workgroups. IBM hopes to capitalize on its experience to gluetogether its worldwide business applications.

IBM's Software Solutions Division, which is responsible for the SoftwareServers, knows it must simplify installation and ensure the products worktogether (out of a wish list of almost 200 products, IBM consolidated 57 intothe seven servers in its suite). To that end, IBM has established a newIntegration Lab and focused on usability.

In the database arena, IBM offers DB2 on everything from an Intel box to amainframe (to learn about DB2's position as a BackOffice alternative, seeElizabeth Lindholm, "Is DB2 Right for You?," ). The company also has ahigh-end, transaction-oriented Information Management System (IMS)database andseveral data warehouse and data mart products. IBM has data mining and onlineanalytical processing (OLAP) products, but has primarily left the development ofDB2 vertical applications to its partners.

IBM's approach to Internet commerce is more hands-on. IBM's family ofCommercePOINT products, which includes Net.Commerce, helps companies hoststorefronts. IBM has also formed alliances with banks to support home banking.IBM will rent space on its secure IBM Global Network (IGN) as a value-addednetwork (VAN) alternative to traditional long-distance carriers. And unlike theInternet's well-known free search engines, IBM's search engine for use in itscommercial Internet services, infoSage and infoMarket, will be fee based.

IBM's Communications Server competes head to head with Microsoft's SNA. Thecompany's new Transaction Server for NT will give NT users access to themainframe mainstay, CICS applications, and IBM's Transarc Encina TP monitor.IBM's Transaction Server seems poised to offer more functionality thanMicrosoft's forthcoming Transaction Service (formerly code named Viper).

IBM has hundreds of other products to support its Software Servers for NT.They range from imaging tools (such as FlowMark and ImagePlus) to programminglanguages (notably its VisualAge family). One product that is especiallyimportant in IBM's overall software strategy is Lotus Notes. (IBM cites anInternational Data Corporation report that says IBM gained 1.61 million newNotes users in the first half of 1996.)

For many potential IBM Software Server customers, the Lotus Domino 4.5 WebServer will be the plum. Domino is a Web server and messaging server in one. Itprovides an integrated, enterprise-ready client/server messaging and groupwaresolution that lets users develop, deploy, and manage a Web site that leveragesDomino's infrastructure. The infrastrucure is powered by Notes and includessecurity and replication functionality and workflow and application developmentcapabilities. Although IBM is pursuing its own efforts to keep up in the Webwars (the company recently introduced a Web browser terminal), IBM hopes newusers will join more than 7 million Notes (and Domino) users by choosing IBM astheir Internet/intranet groupware solution--the one through which they do theirbrowsing, scheduling, messaging, and collaboration.

IBM is hedging its bets in the distributed objects arena by announcingsupport for its own OpenDoc/Common Object Request Broker Architecture (COBRA)standard; the Microsoft-centric ActiveX/component object model (COM)architecture; and Sun Microsystem/JavaSoft's Java Beans, the beta,platform-neutral set of APIs for software components that will interoperate COM,Open- Doc, and Netscape's plug-in architectures. "IBM will continueto support OpenDoc, Java Beans, and future technologies that let developersincorporate information into applications running throughout the enterprise,"says Steve Mills.

Why Lotus persists in promoting its not-quite-pure ActiveX Lotus Componentsis a mystery. Similarly, Lotus needs to abandon its Visual Basic (VB)-compatibleLotusScript in favor of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and Visual BasicScript (VBS). This same advice goes for Oracle's Oracle Basic.

Whether IBM's Software Servers for NT can steal market share fromMicrosoft's BackOffice as it moves down-market is hard to say. IBM claims tohave a different value set that the company has developed from its reliability,collective wisdom based on decades of experience, and the IBM logo. However,IBM's Software Servers for NT will probably cannibalize its OS/2 customer base(John Thompson, IBM's senior vice president in charge of the Software SolutionsDivision, says IBM has about 14 million OS/2 users) and perhaps some of itsAS/400 customers. On the plus side, IBM's Software Servers for NT may pull innew customers from Novell sites.

Netscape
Netscape's SuiteSpot server suite originally included six components:Enterprise Server (Netscape's popular Web server), LiveWire Pro (a toolkit forbuilding Web sites), Catalog Server (for indexing, searching, and browsingInternet or intranet sites), Proxy Server (for replicating and filtering contentacross the Internet), Mail Server (for managing email), and News Server (formaintaining secure discussion groups).

Netscape is developing some additional crucial components for release aspart of SuiteSpot 3.0 (for information on Netscape's plans for SuiteSpot, seeJohn Enck, "Netscape and the Suite Scene," page 93). The SuiteSpot 3.0series includes nine servers (Enterprise Server 3.0, Messaging Server 3.0,Catalog Server 1.0, Certificate Server 1.0, Collabra Server 3.0, DirectoryServer 1.0, Proxy Server 2.5, Media Server 1.0, and Calendar Server 1.0) andLiveWire Pro 1.0.

The Netscape Directory Server is a lightweight directory access protocol(LDAP)-compliant server that will offer a universal directory service forenterprisewide management of user, access control, and server configuration.(LDAP is a subset of X.500, a directory services standard that the InternationalStandards Organization and International Telecommunications Union--formerlyCCITT--published in 1988.) The new Certificate Server lets you issue and managepublic-key certificates and security keys crucial to doing business across theInternet. The Netscape Calendar Server lets you schedule people and resources soyou can manage time, events, and to-do lists. Finally, Collabra is a groupwareproduct that supports ad hoc discussions, searching across forums, and virtualforms. It runs as a standalone product, but Netscape will integrate it to run asan LDAP process.

Netscape has forged major strategic alliances with vendors such as SunMicrosystems/JavaSoft for Java and Andersen Consulting, EDS, and GE InformationServices for building and supporting commercial sites. Netscape has also reachedagreements with relational database management system (RDBMS) vendor, InformixSoftware (Informix OnLine Workgroup Server); search engine vendor, Verity(Topic); and NetObjects (Fusion, a Web site builder), and bundles these vendorproducts with Netscape Enterprise Server. Netscape has also announced a newpartnership with Oracle to use Oracle7 Workgroup Edition as an alternative toInformix in LiveWire Pro, to provide its Netscape Navigator Web browser withOracle's new line of Network Computers (NCs), and to use the Oracle7 EnterpriseServer for Netscape's high-end commercial applications.

Netscape's main claim to fame and brand identity is its Netscape Navigatorbrowser (approximately 40 million users), but Netscape's servers and commercialapplications represent a growing portion of the company's revenues (browsersrepresent more than 50 percent of Netscape's revenues, and 80 percent ofNetscape's revenues come from corporate customers). Most IT professionals scoffat the notion of a Johnny-come-lately such as Netscape competing for basicinfrastructure services. Marc Andreessen, cofounder and senior vice presidentfor technology, likes to put a positive spin on Netscape's youth, emphasizingthe recent changes that the Internet has brought to everyday computing. "Whenthere's a major paradigm shift, it's easier to build something new than toretrofit the old stuff," he said (Fortune, July 8, 1996).

Netscape's Catalog Server, a document manager optimized for managing Webcontent, is a good example. With Catalog Server, companies can keep an onlinecatalog of documents and email addresses and set up search services (similar toYahoo's) for their Internet and intranet sites. Although Catalog Server is adocument manager, it's comparable to index and search engines such asMicrosoft's new Index Server.

Netscape also announced an innovative AppFoundry program that bundlesthird-party applications with Netscape servers. At the September 1996 launch,Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale said that Netscape plans to have 100 AppFoundry toolsby year's end. These tools capitalize on the success of Netscape's plug-ins,which let vendors add functionality to the Navigator browser. Plug-ins work likeExcel add-ins and are similar to Microsoft Visual Basic custom controls (VBXs),OLE custom controls (OCXs), ActiveX controls, and Java applets.

SuiteSpot, despite the bundled Informix or Oracle Server, lacks a tightlyintegrated database. Its mail server is oriented toward Internet email andsupports Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), Post Office Protocol Version 3(POP3), and MIME, which traditional messaging servers such as Exchange and Notesare just beginning to incorporate. But Netscape does not supportenterprise-related standards such as X.500 (Netscape plans to incorporate thissupport when it releases its new Directory Server). Additionally, Netscape hasacquired advanced groupware technology from Collabra that will begin to appearin SuiteSpot 3.0.

Netscape does not offer a competitive solution for host connectivity. WhereSuiteSpot shines, though, is in its support for doing business on the Internet,or via intranets available to selected outsiders ("extranets"). Andbecause the business of so many new businesses is the Web, Netscapewants to make a case for creating a niche as a backbone provider. Starwave'sSportsLine site, for example, relies on Netscape Merchant System and PublishingSystem. Netscape's commercial applications (which include the Merchant System,Publishing System, and Commerce System) start at about $45,000 and use anOracle7 database under the hood. Netscape and IBM offer the strongest productlines for businesses wanting to set up commercial Internet sites, but Microsoftand Oracle will roll out similar solutions in early 1997.

Microsoft and Netscape continue to exchange blows, particularly in thewell-publicized browser wars that pit Netscape Navigator against Microsoft'sInternet Explorer. But both companies also have competing Web servers. Mosttools vendors support both the Netscape Server API (NSAPI) and MicrosoftInternet Server API (ISAPI).

Microsoft and Netscape also butt heads over scripting languages. WhereasNetscape wants developers to use JavaScript, Microsoft promotes VBS and supportsits version of Jscript, which differs slightly from Netscape's JavaScript.

Perhaps most important in the long run is Netscape's announced Open NetworkEnvironment (ONE), a grandiose cross-platform architecture with an object model(Netscape Internet Foundation Classes) and support for distributed objectsthrough the CORBA-compliant Inter-Object Request Broker Protocol (IIOP).Although ONE competes directly with Microsoft's OLE/ActiveX/DCOM architecture,ONE will include ActiveX technology and be compatible with Oracle's NCArchitecture.

Oracle
Oracle's mantra seems to be database-centric or NC-centric depending on theday of the week, and the company doesn't even have a formal server suite.Nevertheless, Oracle's strength in the database and vertical applicationsmarketplaces lets the company offer its clients almost everything except theoperating system. Oracle's vision of one-stop shopping includes Oracle7 Serverrunning on everything from Windows laptops to mainframes (for a closer look atthe Oracle7 Server for NT, see "Exploring Oracle7 Server for Windows NT,"page 81). But Oracle sees Oracle7 as an interim product (don't worry, it'splenty robust) en route to the much ballyhooed Oracle 8 Universal Server.

Oracle's strength is in its ability to provide tightly integratedclient/server applications such as its popular Oracle Financials and new WebEmployees. These products, with Oracle's recently acquired OLAP engine, OracleExpress (Web-enabled with a Relational OLAP--ROLAP option), combine to makeOracle look like an attractive infrastructure vendor. Oracle's challenge, likeIBM's, is to be more price-sensitive. Each company needs to convince itsrespective sales force to accept smaller margins in favor of more sales.

Oracle's product line isn't complete in the suite sense. Oracle has a mailand workgroup product, Oracle InterOffice, but it's based on a relational mailstore that isn't efficient for messages and, therefore, not a strong alternativeto Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange.

Oracle doesn't have any products that compete in the systems management ortransaction server arenas. However, it has some other interesting products suchas the Oracle7 Spatial Option, which supports the Environmental Systems ResearchInstitute's (ESRI's) popular mapping software ArcView GIS, and ConText 1.1, asmart search engine that can summarize long documents. For multimedia, Oraclehas a video option that primarily delivers training videos for its Oracle7Enterprise Servers, and the company recently released a Web plug-in that usesCompCore Multimedia's SoftPEG without MPEG hardware. The latter will probablycompete with Microsoft's video server (code named Tiger). Also, Oracle ispartnering with Intel for online videoconferencing.

Oracle also has a good line of developer's tools including the venerableOracle Forms, Oracle Reports, and the new Developer/2000 and Designer/2000. Atan average of $3995 per developer seat, these tools are not cheap. However,unlike Oracle's general-purpose Power Objects, these tools are Oracle-centric,so they tightly integrate with the Oracle API and other Oracle tools. To add tothis new set of tools, Oracle has announced a new object-oriented developertool, Sedona, that will enter beta in the first quarter of 1997.

Consistent with its goal to provide one-stop shopping, Oracle has a Webserver, Oracle WebServer, and Web browser, Oracle PowerBrowser. But in the faceof daunting competition, Oracle's strategy for Web-enabling its applications andeasing Web-savvy Oracle application development will not be in Oracle WebServersales nor in grabbing browser market share from Netscape or Microsoft, butsimply in selling Web-enabled versions of its 30 plus high profit-marginclient/server applications. Whether Oracle's forthcoming commerce server,Apollo, can rejuvenate interest in Oracle's WebServer product line and thesuccess of the company's Oracle/VeriFone payments cartridge remains to be seen(Oracle has designed the Oracle WebServer API to accept plug-in cartridges thatwork like Java servlets or ActiveServer controls and interact with each othervia the Oracle Inter-Cartridge Exchange--ICX). ICX is just part of Oracle'sambitious Network Computing Architecture (NCA), which the company unveiled inOctober and bases largely on the emerging CORBA-compliant IIOP for distributedobjects.

Like IBM, Oracle seems to be sitting on the fence in the object model andcomponent wars. Oracle's NC Architecture will support CORBA and IIOP,Microsoft's ActiveX controls, and COM and distributed COM (DCOM).

Are BackOffice shops likely to abandon SQL Server and Internet InformationServer (IIS) for Oracle? Probably not. But Oracle-centric shops will want toconsider Oracle's expanding line of NT products and pester the company's salesforce for better deals. Shari Simon, vice president of Oracle's NT SolutionSales Division, acknowledges Oracle's customer needs by saying, "Ourcustomers depend on Oracle's expertise and track record for delivering reliablebusiness solutions on NT, from the workgroup to the enterprise--whereasBackOffice is a generic product bundle that doesn't address specific businesssolutions such as data marts and electronic commerce." NT shops might evenwant to look at Oracle7's ConText option to harness its power for deliveringdata summaries.

Microsoft
So how is Microsoft responding? Not surprisingly, it is promoting itsgrowing server suite as the best-integrated solution of the bunch. What is,surprising is that Microsoft sees IBM's AS/400 as a bigger threat than IBM,Netscape, and Oracle server suites. The 400,000 AS/400s, which reportedlygenerate some $14 billion per year for IBM, have a reputation for incrediblereliability and are host to thousands of vertical applications. IBM recentlyunveiled a complete AS/400 Web server as an alternative to UNIX and NT Webservers (UNIX servers still dominate the market, but NT-based Web sitesaccounted for about 12.5 percent of the market in August 1996, according toNetcraft Ltd. in Bath, UK--www.netcraft.com/survey).

In addition to competition from AS/400s, Microsoft sees the mix-and-matchapproach to buying server software as the most formidable threat to BackOfficedominance. According to Murari Narayan, BackOffice product manager, Oracle'sdatabase-centric approach has major limitations, especially in scaling as a mailserver. Netscape doesn't have an operating system or a true database.Nevertheless, Microsoft is fighting Netscape tooth and nail for browser marketshare and on the server, protocol, and object model fronts. "We heavilyevangelized ActiveX, DCOM, and the forthcoming NT-based Microsoft ManagementConsole," says Narayan about Microsoft's November Professional DeveloperConference (PDC) in Long Beach, California.

NT 4.0 anchors Microsoft's six-component, best-of-breed BackOffice Server2.0 suite with support for file-and-print, communication, Internet, database,messaging, groupware, host-connectivity, and systems-management applications. Tokeep pace with the competition, Microsoft is adding to its server suite: a newIndex Server search engine (code named Tripoli) and Microsoft Proxy Server(formerly the Internet Access Server, code named Catapult), which are alreadyshipping.

Microsoft will add three other applications to the BackOffice lineup. Thefirst application is a media server (code named Tiger) that promises to delivervideo on demand, starting with support for streaming video in phase one of itsrollout. A second application is the high-end Commercial Internet System(CIS--code named Normandy) Web site suite, which consists of personalization,chat, email, news, membership services, indexing, commerce, and contentreplication servers for corporate site builders, independent software vendors(ISVs), and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) including CompuServe. The lastapplication is Falcon, store-and-forward messaging middleware reminiscent ofIBM's MQSeries of message-oriented middleware.

Most of Microsoft's other new servers are Internet related. Microsoft'smuch-anticipated Merchant System for Web commerce, which is turbo-charged witheShop technology that Microsoft acquired in June 1996, and the forthcomingTransaction Service (code named Viper), which is a blend of TP monitor,distributed database commit and rollback, and legacy connectivity, both have Webties.

Microsoft is making strides on the object model and component front. Thecompany is establishing new standards, including Personal Information Exchange(PFX) for moving public key information between media, and the controversialCommon Internet File System (CIFS), which Microsoft hopes will succeed FTP andNFS.

Support for different object models, development tools, and scriptinglanguages is extremely significant because of the effect on the developercommunity. All four vendors recognize the importance of gaining the developers'allegiance (Microsoft's Nathan Myhrvold even goes so far as to refer todevelopers as Microsoft's volunteer army). To that end, the vendors offerseveral programs and conferences to keep developers happy, informed, and on thevendors' respective teams.

Microsoft believes it offers the most comprehensive, integrated, andeasy-to-use suite--easy to use perhaps, but confusing to buy. Microsoft, likeIBM, needs to work on better packaging so that customers who buy BackOffice 2.0don't have to pay to upgrade NT 3.51, for example, to NT 4.0.

Stacking the Deck in Your Favor
Now is the time to place your bets. But how do you know whether you have awinning hand? Deciding which suite to buy or even which vendor to pledgeallegiance to is difficult at best. Mixing and matching various vendorcomponents is possible but can be hard. Knowing what cards to keep in your handand what cards to throw away is a very serious business.

Chances are you already have email, host connectivity, and Internet servercomponents established. That still leaves some crucial components begging to beinstalled: a site search engine and indexing server, perhaps an Internet serverfor electronic commerce, a transaction manager to handle load balancing and jobrequests in a distributed environment, and the all-important directory servicesmanager. Selecting these components may force you to choose sides, especially inthe object model arena, before you'd like to.