State of t he NOS

By Jay Milne  It's been 18 months since our last state of the NOS appraisal, and, frankly, we're not impressed with what we have seen in the interim. Servers are not stabler, the cost of ownership has not fallen significantly and security is still a major concern. The next 12 to 18 months will be critical. Vendors have a lot to gain--and a lot to lose. Enterprises will not have room for more than two major NOSes within their walls. The cost of supporting and maintaining a third NOS is too high, and too many compatibility issues would arise. The battle of the NOSes is being waged on many fronts. From a technical perspective, Novell's NetWare (also known as IntranetWare 1) provides many of the facilities that seasoned network administrators rely on: a flexible file compression system, user disk quotas, and the ability to dynamically load and unload protocols, network adapters and disks without rebooting. In addition, NetWare has always provided RCONSOLE, a simple, text-based tool for accessing the NetWare server console remotely to perform any function. NetWare also integrates tightly with NDS and requires less hardware than Windows NT, for example. These features have made NetWare a strong NOS for file and print sharing. Microsoft's Windows NT has its own list of technology wins, including support for a preemptive, multithreaded microkernel for integrated SMP (symmetric multiprocessing), as well as for virtual memory. These core features have made NT the NOS of choice for many low-end intranet and Internet solutions. The number of intranet and Internet applications available on NT is significantly greater than those available for NetWare. This factors strongly in NT's momentum. The next major releases of both operating systems, NT 5.0 a nd NetWare 5 (the IntranetWare name has been dropped), will see each vendor trying to fix the inadequacies of its respective NOS. In many respects, these releases will start to level the playing field. Both vendors will now support many of the same technologies, such as Intelligent I/O (I2O) and Fibre Channel. To enhance NetWare's application-hosting capabilities, NetWare 5 adds a preemptive, multitasking kernel with SMP support, which was previously available as an add-on, and a virtual memory component. In addition, NSS (Novell Storage System) provides a more powerful file system that increases the number and size of files supported, significantly decreases the time to mount a volume and provides a more fault-tolerant file system. Java is a key component of Novell's application-hosting strategy. NetWare 5 will include a JVM (Java Virtual Machine), so server-side Java applications can access NetWare resources such as SMP, NDS and network connectivity. NetWare 5 is not the only new product coming out of No vell. While there are no significant new features to NDS itself, NDS is now available on other platforms, such as The Santa Cruz Operation's OpenServer, and will be available on Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP-UX, SunSoft Solaris and NT in 1998. Not to be outdone, NT 5.0 will address many of NT 4.x's shortcomings. NT 5.0's new features include a new directory service, ADS (Active Directory Service); disk quotas; enhanced remote management; and a new MMC (Microsoft Management Console). Microsoft also is trying to make NT more dynamic by not requiring a reboot after changes. The underlying microkernel is not changed in NT 5.0, but you will see the inclusion of several applications previously available as individual products, such as Transaction Server, Message Queuing Server and Index Server. Two factors will determine which NOS will be king: First, how fast and how well can Novell and Microsoft deliver on the new features? As we saw with the first version of Novell's NDS, a directory service is a complex techno logy that takes time and multiple revisions to stabilize. Microsoft's ADS will face the same fate. Novell, on the other hand, has a new, enhanced kernel--how well will it work with current applications? The second factor is ISV (independent software vendor) support. In the intranet/Internet space, NT currently is the hands-down winner over NetWare. The key question is whether Novell will be able to recover some of its lost ISV support. In the coming year, we see NT's momentum increasing even more. This has more to do with ISV support and mind share, than with technical superiority over NetWare. NT holds a very strong place in the application-hosting arena and Microsoft's dominance in the desktop market will only strengthen NT's position. In addition, Microsoft's ability to provide a plethora of complementary products, such as SQL Server and Exchange, make NT a very tempting choice, especially considering Novell's decision to gamble on Java. Though Java shows a lot of promise, given its cross-platform c ompatibility and strong industry support, only time will tell if real-world applications written in Java will appear. When all is said and done, Novell may be a little too late. NetWare 5 will provide some much-needed technology, but its prowess at file and print sharing will not be enough to sustain it, since many file and print services will be adequately supplied by NT.

The State of the NOS feature, in A crobat format, includes the Next-Generation NOS features chart, and all other graphics. For the Side Bar on Hits And Misses High-Availability Options Novera EPIC: An Alternative NOS Reader Survey Results Related Links NetWare 5: NOS Battle Renews Unix To NT, NT To Unix: NFS Connectivity Options Galore For Microsoft Windows NT Sun Breaks Through Stormy Network Clouds Windows98: Still Some Smudges Is NT Strong Enough to Carry the Load?